The Chamber of Art

DWAD Season 28

2012-01-17T18:07:00.001-08:00

DWAD Season 27

2012-01-13T01:38:00.000-08:00

DWAD Season 26

2012-01-13T01:14:00.000-08:00

DWAD Season 25

2012-01-13T01:06:00.000-08:00

DWAD Season 13

2012-01-03T03:39:00.001-08:00

In this, the first adventure of his tenth regeneration, the disoriented Doctor begins the search for his lost friend Kathy. However the time traveler is quickly sidetracked by a mysterious meteor crash in Neo Mexico where the White Sands Missile Base is under seige from psychic attack.

With his reluctant companion Kevin Vasavious in tow, the Doctor investigates the meteorite as its baleful influence increases over everyone present. But, as the determined and logical Ninth Doctor has been replaced by a more erratic and scatterbrained successor, can he discover the truth in time?

Because the new Doctor is facing an old enemy, one more powerful and dangerous than ever before...

PART ONE
PART TWO

Abandoned by his companions and having lost all trace of finding the lost Kathy Williams, the newly-regenerated Doctor is at his wits end. By chance he encounters his old friend Sarah-Jane Smith who determines to rekindle the Doctor's spirits... and how better than a random trip to a distant alien planet?

It is a decision they may both live to regret.

Despite appearances, the shattered ruins of the city are far from deserted and this planet is anything but lifeless. There are things in the shadows that Sarah-Jane can see out of the corner of her eyes, things that are lost and lonely and damned - and it will take all the Doctor's courage and quick-thinking prevent both of the time travelers joining their ranks...

After a cataclysm engulfs their galaxy, the beleagured Thelusians find salvation in the ancient Diagrams - a promise of a distant world that they can make their home.

After thousands of generations, the space arks are finally close to their final destination when they are approached by beings called "Doctor" and "Sarah-Jane". They reveal their new homeworld, the planet Earth, is currently inhabited.

Should the Thelusians conquer the planet anyway with their superior weaponry? Or risk total extinction on a quest to find another world before their supplies finally run out? And how will humanity react to the Thelusians' arrival anyway? Will they welcome the aliens with open arms? Or attempt to blast them out of the sky?

The situation is a powderkeg.

And the Doctor and Sarah may have proved the final spark...

The Doctor finally manages to steer the TARDIS and return his friend Sarah-Jane Smith back to her home time and place - give or take a few million miles. Arriving aboard the brand new ISC Orbital Platform, the Doctor and Sarah-Jane discover that all communications across the Earth have been blacked out and a fleet of UFOs are emerging from behind the moon.

These are historical events the Doctor is forbidden to interfere with.

Because right here and now, the first Cyber War has begun...

On the distant edge of the Helical Galaxy, Time Lady Melissa finds the Doctor's friend Kathy Williams who has been long thought missing, presumed dead. Melissa sends for the Doctor but is taken aback to learn how much he has changed since they last met.

However, their reunion is short-lived as the time travelers end up on either side of a full-scale war between armor-plated defense drones. The Galactic Union created the drones to fight wars instead of people, but now the machines are beginning to turn on their creators. Can the drones really have developed genuine sentience? Or are the rebelling robots actually the puppets of another enemy altogether?

In the final confrontation, not everyone is going to get out of this alive...

DWAD Season 12

2011-12-25T01:52:00.000-08:00

Earth, 1975 - the newly-regenerated Doctor has abandoned his role as defender of humanity to once again explore the cosmos, not considering he has left his favorite planet undefended. And when the last of the Dalek Empire prepare to conquer the Earth in an audacious bid to reshape history in their own image - Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT has nothing to stop them... until a strangely-familiar man in an impossible police box arrives in the middle of the battle.

As the death toll mounts and whole continents are bombed, will there be anyone left to save from the might of the Children of Davros? The only certainty is that, one way or another, this will be the final battle between the Doctor and his oldest enemies...

"There's an incredible race here on this planet, a race of giants! They're too much for us, too powerful.... Central Control, do you read me? The ship's destroyed - we're finished!"

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and his companions to a bleak, wasted and dying world where the natives live out their simple lives in crude, handmade places untouched by technological progress. But the time travelers are not the only visitors to this out of the way patch of the universe: the vanguard of an invasion fleet from the sky have arrived to claim the planet as their own.

However, both the TARDIS crew and the invasion force are out of their depth on a planet where human scale is totally irrelevant. This is a world of giants, and they will not tolerate the tiny intruders, whatever their reasons for being there...

The TARDIS has crash-landed on a far-flung planet, marooning its crew until repairs can be carried out. Fortunately, the world them is a veritable utopia without violence, fear or misery.

But now the Doctor hasmanaged to return the TARDIS to full working order once again, the time has come for a choice to be made. Should the Doctor's companions continue to travel with him or remain in paradise?

But this paradise has a dark side that one of the time travelers is about to experience first hand - when they learn what happens in this society should one of their number fall in love...

I will tell you a mystery: I have a recurring dream.

I am V23 and I am not V23. I am being hung from a tree of flesh. I am not alone: many humans are there with me - I estimate millions. Their living bodies form the trunk. It twists and writhes as though caught in a wind - but the air is still. We are struggling to break free, though we are fused with one another and our violence only makes things worse. Either side there are hungry faces and hungry voices overwhelming me, my voice is obscured by the cacophony...

I no longer have a name. I have lost it in a sea of names. The hands of the tree pin us down. The thorns wind through our bodies, binding us together. We have become one being - but we do not recognize ourselves. We are not come to awareness. We cannot escape.

We cannot escape...

For years the Doctor's mind has been the prison to something immeasurably dangerous - something that wears the form of the Time Lord's last incarnation. The prisoner has mocked and taunted the Doctor, unable to do anything else - until now.

Because now the Doctor is dying, and he is going to take the prisoner with him.

To the horror of Kathy and Kevin, the prisoner seizes control of the Doctor's body in a desperate bid to achieve corporeal existence. The prisoner has had a long time to plan his escape and the only way the Doctor can stop the prisoner escaping will be to kill his best friends...

Everything is unraveling. Nothing is the same any more.

The Doctor's old friend Drax has been lost, consumed by an elemental force the Doctor should have been able to stop. Abandoned by the last of his companions, the dying Time Lord vows to stop Drax and the evil within him at whatever the cost.

As London of 1975 recovers from an invasion that never was, UNIT is investigating an art scam that only an unscrupulous time traveler could commit. But is Drax still just after a quick profit, or something more sinister? And why has he gone to such lengths to kidnap the Doctor's old friend Kathy Williams?

After countless aeons the Cruciform is finally ready to be activated - in the last thrilling adventure of the Ninth Doctor...

DWAD Season 11

2011-12-23T04:19:00.000-08:00

The TARDIS bring the Doctor and his friend Kathy Williams back to the year 280 BC - but they are not the only time travelers sightseeing...

The island of Rhodes finished constructing an enormous statue of the god Apollo to guard their harbor. However, the threat ot the island is from within - rebels are looking overthrow the tyrant King Serse, and so is his ambitions second-in-command Thar. The powderkeg situation grows worse as Serse considers an alliance with Phoenicia against Greece, not realizing Thar has already done a deal with them.

He who controls the Colossus controls Rhodes - more than that, perhaps...

Twice before the Doctor became a part of Varian development. He has seen them turn from an advanced culture to barbaric savages, religious zealots to a stable civilization. But now his ability to travel in time has shown him the Varians' ultimate fate - gone to dust.

Has it all been for nothing?

As an archaelogical dig begins on the rusting remains of the Varian space ark, the Doctor is troubled by the arrival of a Time Lord investigator with his own agenda. And when the killings begin, it becomes obvious that the Doctor, Kathy and Kyle that nothing and noone is entirely what they appear...

Life, whatever its form, has to reproduce in order to survive.

Some species use others as hosts for their young.

And the wraiths at the heart of the time vortex use minds to grow their offspring.

And now Kathy Williams can't tell what's real or not, if she's dreaming or awake. Did she ever join the TARDIS? Did Bill Sanderson really leave? Is the Doctor just a wizard she's rationalized as an alien time traveler?

All she knows for certain is that her baby will be born soon.

And it will change everything...

A distress signal draws the Doctor to a distant world in the Isop Galaxy where a reclusive commune of scientists are pushing out the frontiers of technology. The locals are secretive to the point of total paranoia, and the TARDIS crew recieve a frosty reception upon arrival.

The Doctor is suspicious in turn about the strange behavior of the reclusive Landau Kellerman. Why is he hiding from the other scientists after perfecting his latest invention? Just where has his wife disappeared to? And why does everyone get the strange feeling they're all being watched?

Perhaps some mysteries are best left unsolved.

The TARDIS has arrived deep in the gloomy forests of a moon orbiting a dying star. Mist drifts over ancient ruins, and blood-sucking predators lurk in the dark between the trees. It's just the sort of place that the Doctor's companions don't want to visit, but the Time Lord knows that there is something special about this spooky forest.

Soon the time travelers are confronted by images of those long gone and lost - and in some cases better that way. Is this truly the afterlife? What the spirits want from the TARDIS crew? And what dark secret has John Walker been keeping from the others right from the very beginning?

DWAD Season 10

2011-12-23T02:02:00.000-08:00

Mars is a busy place.

One of the most powerful outposts of the Osirian Federation; a booster planet for the Zoltan confederacy; an embassy for explorers from another galaxy... Mars is a world of secrets, pyramids, canals and monuments. Its dominent species has forged a working caste of armored reptiles that, one day, will be known as the Ice Warriors.

And the TARDIS has brought the Doctor, Kathy and Torri right back to their genesis.

What could possibly go wrong?

Exiled to Earth by the Time Lords, the Doctor is struggling to reactivate his disabled TARDIS - and one of his attempts leave him flung into a parallel universe so similar to the one he left at first he doesn't realize anything's changed.

But this is an Earth that has been commuting to Mars since the mid-1960s, a word of technology vastly ahead of its time and now confronted point blank with an alien visitation. An interplanetary war has been narrowly averted following the kidnap of alien ambassadors, but the clean-up is a far greater task than the Doctor is expecting... especially now he realizes he's in the wrong reality.

With an alien ship in orbit, misinformation has lead to panic and riots and a fear of an imminent invasion. UNIT have their hands full already, but they are being undermined by numerous traitors in the ranks. There are factions on Earth who want to make money out of the aliens, and the Doctor is unwittingly standing right in their way.

As the situation deteriorates, the Doctor finds himself allies with a mysterious stranger who knows more about the renegade Time Lord than he should... and whose future is dependant on the Doctor's very dangerous present.

The planet Harkol has harnessed psychic energy the way most civilizations harness electricity. With an empire built out of Terileptil-mined elements, the Harkolites are turning their attention to genetic experiments on the dinosaur-like wild animals on the planes.

But now something has gone wrong.

And the Doctor, Kathy and Torri stand witness as the Malus ascend...

Civilization comes and goes, species rise and fall - but the Earth abides. Cities have been reduced to rubble, technology to scrap, and the few surviving humans little more than wild animals. It could be the past or the future, no one knows or cares about the date.

All that matters is some of the survivors have uncovered a fleet of intact warships, and the white heat of technology has given them power they are no longer ready for. The Atragons could rebuild the world - or destroy it once and for all.

The future of mankind depends on human nature.

And the Doctor knows how unpredictable that can be...

The Sixth Doctor, eager to keep on good terms with the new regime of Gallifrey, agrees to explore a bottleneck in time and space - a nexus of different realities interfacing in the ruins of an alien castle. Unfortunately another Doctor and his companions have arrived to seal off the bottleneck once and for all.

The Doctor rarely gets on well with himself and every moment wasted allows the time streams to collide again and again. Already the castle is filled with its previous, doomed owners from the distant past, and it won't be long before the terrors of the future will arrive as well.

Meanwhile Torri has good reason to worry, because she can see every possible future of her Doctor and Kathy...

...and none of them feature her at all...

DWAD Season 9

2011-12-20T01:05:00.000-08:00

When a planet mysteriously vanishes from space and time, the TARDIS crew is recruited by the mysterious Tribunal to find out the truth. Their quest soon takes them to the planet Camaztoz, which is infested with the malevolence known only as the Ixchel.

As the tangible evil moves to destroy the time travelers, the Doctor begins to suspect that the red-eyed attackers are not their only enemy on this mission. Can the Tribunal itself be trusted? Are the TARDIS crew fighting on the wrong side?

And will they live long enough to discover the truth?

A damaged Star Cruiser is forced to retreat to a frontier moon colony well inside Zylon territory. There they encounter four marooned time travelers - Newman, Torri, Kathy and the Doctor. Cut off from StarFleet Command, and hiding from Zylon Hunters, the survivors are forced into the network of strange tunnels beneath the colony dome. As night falls, shadowy figures stalk the tunnels in a sadistic game of cat and mouse...

Have the Zylons somehow managed to follow their prey below the surface? Where does paranoia end and genuine danger begin? Who are the traitors and who are the cowards? Can the Doctor and his friends stave off insanity long enough to survive the night - or will they too succumb to the hex of the Zylons?

An attempt to repair the TARDIS will have shocking repercussions across an entire civilization as the time travelers arrive in orbit above an isolated planet. The natives now for the first time realize that they are not alone in the universe, and the TARDIS crew are directly responsible.

And with a whole planet's gaze firmly fixed on the Doctor, Newman, Kathy and Torri, the Weeping Angels are ready to gain a foothold on an unsuspecting world.

And no one will see them coming.

Mark Newman has finally summoned the courage to return home. The Last Dalek War is over. The Empire has been annihilated, and the cosmos is at peace once again - but for how long?

Without a common enemy to unite them, the galactic powers are beginning to turn on each other - made all the worse by a spate of inexplicable viruses and plagues ravaging their territories. It seems only one faction has the ability to restore order and save the galaxy from disease; the android functionaries of the Movellan Network...

If there was ever a time the Doctor needed the Daleks back, it's now.

A long time ago, the Doctor discovered a group of refugees had degenerated into barbarism on a derelict space ark. With his help they were able to return back to their home planet of Varian and hopefully find others of their kind to help rebuild their civilization.

However, things on Varian had changed dramatically in the interim.

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and his friends Kathy and Torri to Varian where they discover the descendants of refugees are now celebrities peddling their new religion, a belief in a higher being of infinite mercy and compassion who travels in a temple that contains the souls of his myriad desciples.

The planet Varian now worships the god it knows as "Doctor"...

DWAD Season 8

2011-12-20T01:01:00.000-08:00

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Kathy, Bill and Newman to Earth in the year 7312 where a global conflict has reduced the eastern hemisphere to barbarism, while the west has become isolationists. For the first time in three centuries, explorers are heading out into the mists towards the forbidden territories.

But not all life was rendered extinct in the wars.

Sentient, aggressive sea weed chokes the oceans and devours any meat it encounters; giant underwater beasts have risen up to the surface in search of new food sources; and a new civilization has formed on the one remaining habitable landmass - one that doesn't appear on any maps... anywhere...

"Not all aliens come from outer space, you know..."

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Newman and Kathy to an ice moon in the distant future. There they encounter a scientific research base which is carrying out excavations on underground cavern that is millions of years old. However, anyone or anything that attempts to explore the cavern mysteriously disappears. Soon, silver figures are attacking the base itself. If the crew stay they will be overrun, but they cannot get past their assailants to evacuate.

Assailants the Doctor knows as the Cybermen.

"Save your last breath for a scream..."

Responding to a summons he cannot bring himself to refuse, the Doctor pilots the TARDIS to the Sacred Stillness - a revered sector of space, home of long-forgotten gods and now a no man's land at the heart of an intergalactic war. There he finds Melissa, his oldest and most important of companions, who needs his help to escape the Kroton warspears.

Neither realize, however, that this is all part of a stratagem by the Krotons themselves who are eager to gain High Brains with access to all of time and space - especially the ones that so recently defeated them. And as the Krotons unleash their newest and most deadly of weapons, the only thing left between them and total victory will be Newman and Kathy.

Whether they like it or not.

Young Victoria "Torri" Moberly must factor all sorts of complicated elements into her social life. Boys, school, dieting, parents, finding some precious time so she has a chance to goof off at the new amusement park...

But she failed to factor in an alien parasite landing in town.

The Wirrrn have arrived and mankind is their new host for fresh hatchlings. As the nightmare begins to spread, Torri finds the amusement park the only sanctuary against a threat to all life on Earth itself. But why are the deadly and indestructible Wirrrn wary of a few carousels and roller-coasters? Where have all the people gone?

And just who left the old police box inside the park gates?

Messier 87: a giant elliptical galaxy surrounding the nucleus of a black hole.

It is also the Empire of the Macra.

Those within Messier 87 are happy to be slaves - at least, those actually aware that they are slaves. Whole species are working for the greater good of the Macra, mining noxious compounds of natural gas to fuel armies of bestial crustaceans that cannot survive in an atmosphere fit for humans. But these crab-like monsters are slaves to the Macra like everyone else, controlled by an unseen force.

Arriving in Messier 87, the Doctor knows it is only a matter of time before the Macra overwhelm both him and his companions, be it by nerve circuits, giant crabs or legions of gleeful slave workers. This time, fighting for their lives just won't be enough.

Because this isn't repelling an invasion, it's waging a galactic revolution - against an enemy that is as much a concept as a disease.

One that has beaten the Doctor before...

DWAD Season 7

2011-12-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

Not many traditional music venues survived the 1970s, but the Jupiter Theater in Manhattan outlived the decade providing shows where you could see the stage, afford the tickets and hear the music. But now the stress of setting up the New Year's Eve concert of 1982 is too much for owner and showman Teddy Woodtorch who collapses of a suspected heart attack.

A hero to live music fans everywhere, Teddy's deathbed request is to make New Year's Eve the greatest party ever. Invited to the show are the psychadelic Captain Cloud and the Rainbow Telegraph; the vicious all-female 15-member bubblegum pop band called Nada; the terrifyingly vicious Piggy of Metal Murder Machine; the infamous self-styled King of the Blues; jaded rock star Reggie Wanker, the poor-man's Mick Jagger.

Also summoned to attend are Auden, a metaphyiscal folk singer of the 70s turned antisocial recluse; and Dr. John Smith, a music lover of different faces, tastes, styles, friends and about the only constant about him is that battered old blue box he brings everywhere...

The Doctor and Newman are introducing their new travelling companion Bill Sanderson to the concept of free movement through time and space - but the TARDIS is being less than cooperative. After nearly getting her crew killed by materializing in the middle of the Normandy landings, the time machine sends the trio cartwheeling through history without rhyme or reason.

From the hellish hospitality of the Spanish Inquisition to the dawn of the Dalek Empire in the ruins of Skaro, the time travelers have nothing but their own resourcefulness to survive an endless nightmare of horrors they would all rather forget...

As Kathy Williams takes up residence aboard the TARDIS, the time comes for the Doctor to finally spring-clean his beloved time-ship. But as he sorts out the possessions of former travelling companions, he discovers a dangerous virtual reality video game that once nearly cost him his life.

Unfortunately the game is corrupted and soon begins to exert an influence over the TARDIS itself, remaking its internal dimensions until it resembles Ancient Rome under the rule of the insane Emperor Caligula.

As Newman and Bill are sentenced to the area, Kathy tries to infiltrate the gladiator school to rescue them while the Doctor attempts the impossible - reasoning with the Emperor. But while Caligula may be mad, he is no fool and sees the idea of different realities as a stepping stone to living godhood.

The time travelers must not only survive this ghastly parody of Rome, but prevent Caligula from merging with the TARDIS and seizing control of what is, what was, and what will be, forever more...

There is a world where no where everyone lives forever, immortal and indestructible and healthy. A world where no one can die - unless those who rule say otherwise. A world where freedom does not exist, and the power of life and death is literally held over the populace.

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and his friends to this world, and they too have their mortality robbed from them. Whether they live or die is entirely at the whim of the government that rules this planet with artificial grim reapers that are the only thing that can end someone's existence.

The Doctor is determined to end this tyranny - but will his friends join him at the cost of their newfound immortality?

DWAD Season 6

2011-12-08T17:26:00.000-08:00

The Children of Davros are facing their greatest defeat, being overwhelmed by their enemies on all fronts and factions of the False Paradigm still at large. Their only advantage is the Doctor, now their captive and unable to stop them gaining access to his most dangerous of secrets.

As the ADF close in for the kill, lead by the Doctor's old companions Don and Lyssa, Davros decides to undertake a final mission that could change the course of the Last Dalek War. At a rift in time and space is something that will grant the Daleks ultimate power over this reality - if they are willing to pay the price.

The Daleks need the Doctor to achieve this, and the ADF knows the best way to foil their plans is to assassinate the Time Lord. Can Don and Lyssa allow their former friend to perish for the greater good?

All across the Earth, those of high intellect are disappearing. Determined to locate them, the search leads the Doctor and Newman to the distant world of Hexagora in the dying days of its civilization. Entering a new ice age, the Queen of Hexagora will do anything necessary to save her adopted people from extinction.

At the heart of an alien empire, the Doctor and Newman soon realize they can trust no one and nothing - not even their own senses. What are the strange insect-like monsters prowling the streets of the city? Where have all the kidnapped humans gone? And can the Queen of Hexagora really be the Doctor's longlost friend Melissa?

And how long will it be before the truth no longer matters?

April 1974 and the world as we know is about to end at the hand of a celestial body drawing closer and closer. The Doctor and Newman are able to warn the scientific community about the imminent catastrophe, but it quickly becomes apparent that they aren't seeing the full picture.

In the sleepy English town of Devesham, the current wave of mysticism and new age thinking has stepped up a gear. Long-promised enlightenment has arrived and those with open minds are being granted powers undreamed of by benefactors from another plane of existence. Is this truly the dawn of the Age of Aquarius?

And what will befall those who do not embrace it?

The Conscience of Marinus was an all-powerful justice computer capable of controlling the minds of sentient beings. The disparate peoples and societies of Marinus were united in peaceful, blind obedience. After seven centuries, the noble Voord freedom fighters returned free will to the planet but there were still those determined to restore the Conscience at all costs.

The Doctor thought the Conscience destroyed for good on his last visit to Marinus, but the Cult of Arbitans have recreated it and this time its power will spread not only over Marinus but all across space and time. Reluctantly teaming up with the Voord, the Doctor and Newman must prevent the final activation of the Second Conscience and end of all free thought in the universe...

Long ago, the Zygon Warlord Broton found sanctuary on the planet Earth. With his fellow Zygons, he set out to conquer the planet and transform it into the perfect world for the rest of his kind to settle on. The call was sent out to summon the rest of the Zygons to their new home.

But things didn't go to plan. Broton's bid for world domination was a total failure and he and his would-be conquerers were slaughtered by humanity. The threat of the Zygons was forgotten. No one knew of the invitation to the rest of the Zygor refugee fleet, or that it would be centuries before they arrived.

And now the Zygons are here, and they want their promised land.

And it is time for the Doctor to resolve matters - one way or another...

DWAD Season 5

2011-12-08T16:31:00.000-08:00

A distress signal draws the TARDIS to a massive colony ship lost between the island galaxies. But the call for help is centuries old and the Doctor, Don and Lyssa have arrived far too late to assist.

Civilization has collapsed; barbarous primitives stalk through the corridors and vaults of the ships; conflicting religions have sprung up to explain their predicament. The truth of the situation is long lost and no one is interested in the truth.

But this colony ship were fleeing something terrible.

Something that has finally caught up with them...

The Doctor takes his friends Don and Lyssa to see the grand bauble known as the Moonstone - forged out of an exploding white hole and treasured by every civilization with a concept of worth. However, the time travelers soon uncover a scheme to steal the Moonstone from the museum display. Thinking quickly, the TARDIS crew infiltrate the criminal gang, "assisting" them in the crime.

The problem is that the Moonstone is actually alive - and if it should be stolen it can and will drive its theives out of their minds...

Silurian explorers are searching the ruins of Earth for any more of their people left underground in suspended animation. Investigating an ancient cave system known as the Caverns of Brozon, they discover pockets of strange, energy-rich crystals.

But what effect have these crystals had on the creatures that inhabit the cave system? And how will they react to the intruders disturbing their kingdom? Unfortunately, the Doctor and his friends are about to find out the answers...

Tragedy has torn the TARDIS crew apart - and his stillborn child has driven Don Matheson into a fit of suicidal insanity as he begins a one-man attack on the planet of New Skaro at the height of the Last Dalek War.

But Don is not the only one on a suicide mission to New Skaro. The ADF - Anti-Dalek Taskforce - is conducting a guerilla raid right at the heart of the New Paradigm Empire. The Doctor is drawn into the conflict in his attempts to stop his friend getting himself killed, but not even he is prepared for what happens next.

Davros, Lord and Creator of the Dalek race has returned.

Nothing will ever be the same again...

Their baby is dead. The Doctor is missing. And, quite frankly, they can barely stand to be in the same room as each other. But if Don Matheson and Lyssa cannot work together then the entire human race is at risk of annihilation.

With the Children of Davros and the New Paradigm slaughtering one another, it seems that victory over the Daleks is inevitable - but news has to come to light that there is another aspect to the war the Anti-Dalek Force has overlooked. Rumors that no one survives an encounter with the Daleks unchanged, that those lucky to escape aren't lucky at all but the walking dead controlled by the Daleks. Is it part of the Daleks' war effort, or a double bluff of propaganda?

Either way, true or not, this information could tear humanity apart with mistrust and paranoia. Only Don and Lyssa stand a chance of preventing civil war, and their only ally is the man that started all the trouble in the first place - an ADF agent called Mark Newman...

DWAD Season 4

2011-12-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

The Doctor thought the Master was long dead - but the Doctor was wrong.

Caught in a web of double-bluff and manipulation, the TARDIS is drawn to the ruins of the planet Teserus where his oldest enemy is waiting for him. Despite the Doctor's warnings, his companions Don and Lyssa accompany him to face the Master no matter what the consequences.

As Don is left closer to death than he has ever been and Lyssa finds her very thoughts being corrupted, what lengths will the Doctor go to to save his friends? Is he, at last, willing to destroy the Master?

And is that what the Master really wants?

Io, the moon of Jupiter, has become a primitive, fuedal world. When its vain, narcissistic emperor finally dies and is laid to rest in his tomb with his collection of mirrors, the "mourning" population quietly rejoices. It's the perfect place for a relaxing street party, which is why the Doctor has travelled here with Don and Lyssa.

But they are not the only new arrival in the community - a statue of an angelic, weeping figure has appeared at the outskirts of the village. Strangely, it seems to be able to move of its own accord, as long as no one is looking at it.

And, when a sudden and impossible solar eclipse plunges Io into inexplicable night, the statue is given total freedom of movement...

And there will be no survivors.

The economy of the galaxy is thrown into turmoil when it is discovered the colony world of Canis has staggeringly vast mineral resources - and indeed beneath its surface is more gold than the rest of the galaxy put together. The people of Canis are about to get very, very rich.

A consignment of these precious metals is being sent to the heart of the Earth Empire for validation, a decision that will change the political and social face of the known universe forever - and when the TARDIS arrives on the transporter, the Doctor and his friends learn that there are many who do not want the status quo changed.

But there is another, older threat that has a very different reason to prevent Canis exploiting its massive gold reserves...

The TARDIS arrives on Earth in the year 6000 as a bio-weapon unintentionally is released into the atmosphere. Particles of disease fill the sky until the sun itself turns black. The planet is quarantined and the population of Earth are left to die in the plague.

But not if the Doctor has anything to do with it.

As the pathogens coat the world and humanity begins to die, the TARDIS crew discover that not only are they themselves not immune to the epidemic but also that the release of the virus may not have been an accident after all...

After 500, 000 centuries of conflict, it seems that the war between the Sontarans and the Rutans is finally reaching its end. The Rutan Host has been driven back on all frontiers, every ship and resource used up in the endless war. The Sontarans battle groups are closing in for the final assault on the Rutan home world, a final blow that will wipe out the Rutans forever... and leave the warmongering Sontarans free at last to turn their attention to the rest of the cosmos.

With the balance of every possible future at risk, the Time Lords of Gallifrey send the Doctor to Ruta III in a desperate bid to save the Rutans and maintain the balance of conflict between the two space powers. But can even the Doctor find a way to turn the tide of battle in the Rutans' favor?

Perhaps the answer lies with the greatest mystery of the Sontaran/Rutan conflict.

What, exactly, started it?

DWAD Season 3

2011-12-07T02:42:00.001-08:00

Aboard the TARDIS, Don Matheson and his girlfriend Lyssa discover a strange entertainment invention - a machine that sends your subconscious into an artificial reality based on your life in a parallel universe.

The lovers try the machine and are instantly transported to Ancient Rome. Don is a gladiator waiting to enter the colleseum as the crowd chants his name, while Lyssa is a pampered noble with the aristocracy watching events unfold. But the fun and games do not last long as Don finds himself fighting for his life against the most dangerous enemies he has ever encountered and Lyssa finds herself fending off assassination attempts from envious courtiers.

The trouble with mining the subconscious is that for every good thought you have, a bad thought inevitably accompanies it. As the virtual world becomes ever more nasty and dangerous, the Doctor and Melissa must find a way to save their friends before the process begins to destroy the players' minds...

A hideous plague is spreading across the world faster than any authority can contain. Those infected become ill and contagious, but they do not die - instead, they lose their very identities. Memories, personalities, even facial features are rotting away as the population are reduced to faceless, helpless zombies.

This calamity has claimed other worlds, and will claim still more - unless that traveller in time known as the Doctor can stop it. Together with another race devastated by the plague, he intends to prevent the apocalypse using Chameleon technology that will allow the plague victims to absorb new identities from other people. But is this just replacing one genocide with another?

With faces and identities in flux, the Doctor soon realizes he can trust no one.

Not even himself.

Egypt, 1926. Fired by the discovery of Tutanakhaman's tomb, many archaeologists search for new dig sites - and with them history, fame, and fortune. One such expedition uncovers the entrance to an underground chamber abandoned for 55 centuries.

This is the Tomb of Sontar; a feared and hated toad-headed god that travelled the skies in a falling star and was trapped beneath the sands before he could destroy the world.

Despite warnings from the natives, the hieroglyphics on the entrance and even the newly-arrived TARDIS crew, the archaeologists break the seal and discover the body of the demon Sontar - or rather an alien called Field Major Styx, who is still alive.

Sontarans were built to last, and their plans for Earth will be carried out...

The Zylon Hunt has begun across the heavens once more as the insectoid parasites assimilate every technology and resource they come across. The United Federation of Planets is forced to end centuries of peace and prosperity to move onto a war footing.

As the TARDIS arrives, Earth and its fellow planets are plunged in jingoistic propaganda and media manipulation. It is not a time for strangers to be out of doors and soon the time travelers find themselves caught on opposite sides of a brand new conflict - those who believe the Federation should go to war and those who insist that peaceful negotiation is the only way.

As anarchy and violence spread, the Doctor and his friends discover that the Zylons are much closer to victory than anyone ever thought possible...

The Doctor and his friends have arrived in the Sacred Stillness, the legendary resting place of the gods - a gas nebula now being used as a thriving commercial trading post. But extremist worshippers of the Sacred Stillness will not tolerate such desecration, and prepare to unleash a deadly weapon to cleanse the holy place of unbelievers.

That weapon is the Krotons - ancient crystalline biomechanoids recovered from a long-forgotten intergalactic war. The Krotons see all organic life as raw material to either be used up or destroyed, and the slaughter they undertake will spare no one, no matter what their religious beliefs.

Against an unstoppable, indestructible foe, the Doctor realizes there may not be a happy ending this time. For here, in the Sacred Stillness, one of the TARDIS crew has reached the end of the line...

DWAD Season 2

2011-12-07T02:19:00.000-08:00

An argument over map-reading has lead to the TARDIS passing through a CVE - a gateway into another universe known as E-Space. The Doctor, Melissa and Don Matheson find themselves in a galaxy gripped in terror by the rule of the Tharils, ferocious lion-like creature that can travel through time and space at will and have conquered all other races.

But the enslaved population of E-Space are fighting back and have created an army of robots called the Gundan who can follow the Tharils back to their enclave between universes. The Doctor has seen the future of E-Space and knows that this revolution will ultimately become as corrupt and bloodthirsty as the Tharils they overthrow - but dare he attempt to change history in a universe not his own?

In the meantime however, the TARDIS crew must join forces with the brilliant Lyssa - creator of the Gundans and the woman upon whose genius the future depends - against the Antonine mercenaries eager to stamp out the revolt begore it begins...

Returning to N-Space, the TARDIS has landed the Doctor and his friends right at the heart of Cyberman territory. In order to keep rival space powers at bay, the Cybermen have been using their prisoners as slave labor rather than merely transforming them into more Cybermen - knowing their respective peoples will not attack for fear of harming innocents.

The time travellers find themselves press-ganged into building giant statues to the Cyber-Controller - but these are not mere decorations but mobile war machines to be used to spread the Cyber-Empire further than ever before. Worse, the Cybermen have other secret operations underway as they plot to destroy the most powerful planets in the galaxy in a simultaneous terrorist attack.

Can the TARDIS crew overthrow an entire empire from the very seat of their power, or is this the beginning of the end for all fleshman life in the cosmos?

A freak convergence of events has put the Eastern Seaboard at risk, as a discredited scientist's experiments in an abandoned lighthouse and an irradiated meteorite from deep space crashes into the sea. Soon a deadly alien vegetation is choking the life from the ocean and overturning ships, and UNIT desperately call in their legendary scientific advisor to help.

Dealing with the space weed atop the water is a straightforward if difficult matter, but the Doctor is expecting the other side effects of its presence - it has corrupted the DNA of the local sea life, transforming them into ferocious and uncontrollable behemoths and driving them to the surface in a frenzy...

On a historical sightseeing tour, Melissa pilots the TARDIS to the planet Jalyd where the first ever space-warp is being developed by a team of dedicated scientists. However, their efforts have awoken a strange honeycomb of insectoid creatures deep in the rock beneath the research base - a race the Doctor has encountered once before... the ZYLONS!

As the hostile creatures swarm to the surface, it becomes clear they are intelligent and wish to gain control of the experimental technology available there. Forced to retreat via space warp, the TARDIS crew and the scientist discover that the Zylons are awakening all across the galaxy. As the insectoids swarm and multiply, it becomes apparent they are building their own space fleet to attack other planets.

The Zylon Hunt has begun once again...

For a long time now, the Doctor has been haunted by visions and flashes of something resembling his previous incarnation. Is it really a manifestation of his past self or something else entirely? As the Doctor struggles to keep a hold of his sanity, the "Eighth Doctor" is tricking him into ever more dangerous and irrational behavior.

After nearly destroying the TARDIS, the Doctor's companions must take steps to protect the Time Lord from himself. But while the TARDIS drifts through the outer reaches of the vortex, creatures beyond reality are penetrating the hull, intending to use the time machine to enter the physical universe and dominate it.

Restrained while his friends try to discover the cause of the ailment, the Doctor cannot warn them of the danger - but is this all part of the plan of the "Eighth Doctor" or has he finally lost his mind?

DWAD Season 1

2011-12-07T02:13:00.000-08:00

After a strange meteor shower, the small village of Midsomer is plunged into a perpetual fog. Power lines no longer work and a sickly green glow is seen near the church, but of the locals who go to investiage, some are found apparently dead of fright, still more have seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth.

As the sinister fog spreads across the country, the Doctor and Melissa set out to discover the cause. It is in fact an alien Rutan scientist who has crashlanded on Earth and discovered a rift in time and space running right through Midsomer. The Rutan intends to open the rift and bridge Earth with Ruta III - allowing the Rutans to sneak behind enemy lines and launch a surprise attack on the Sontarans.

Unfortunately, the Rutan scientist is not in full control of the rift and it creates a portal not with Ruta III but somewhere far, far oldier and immeasurably more dangerous...

The TARDIS is trapped in the Celestial Toyroom, a pocket reality ruled by a being from another universe: a nihlistic, bored god obsessed with playing games. The Doctor and the Toymaker have fought several before, and the Doctor won each time - but every lucky streak has to run out eventually, after all.

The Doctor and Melissa refuse to play the Toymaker's deadly games and instead focus on trying to escape in the TARDIS. The Toymaker meanwhile continues to seek entertainment across time and space, challenging individuals to games of chance and taking as his prize the only thing worth having: existence itself.

But when the Toymaker prepares to claim an entire planet of six billion innocent people, can the Doctor just stand idly by and watch them be destroyed?

The planet of Crestus is a primitive world of warring tribes and wild animals, but an uneasy accord between two rival warlords has allowed peace to thrive for fifty years. Then it all ends as tribesmen of both sides are found dead, slaughtered by enemies that move faster than the eye can see and show no mercy to their prey.

Arriving on Crestus, the Doctor and Melissa are soon press-ganged into helping locate the infamous Don Matheson - a daredevil lothario who was attempting to sort out a ceasefire with the two tribes when the chief found out Don had seduced his daughter. But rescuing the enthusiastic adventurer is only the first step.

The Raston Imperium have claimed Crestus as their territory, and their robot armies are about to decend on the world to destroy all opposition...

Things are changing on Gallifrey.

The tangled diplomatic treaty between the Time Lords and the Dalek Empire have lead to Dalek refugees taking up residence on the outer worlds of Tesurus and Kastron, while the worlds of Karn and Dronid are overwhelmed by natives fleeing their new Dalek neighbors. In this confusion, the Dalek Empire have access to all the resources they require to reforge themselves as a new paradigm - right on Gallifrey's doorstep. The New Dalek Empire will soon have access to all time and space.

Brought before the High Council to answer for his crimes against their Dalek allies, the Doctor is in no position to assist his people as the Daleks finally cut all ties and begin an all-out assault on Gallifrey. With Don Matheson struggling to help the Outsiders and refugees and the Doctor sentenced to be executed, Melissa must decide whether she must sacrifice everything she has spent her life working for or allow her world to be overrun by the Daleks...

Arriving in fog-enshrouded woods, the TARDIS crew set off for a nearby decrepit mansion. The owner of the house, Professor Narum, is far from pleased to see visitors as his wife and staff grow increasingly infirm and insane. Is it the legacy of Narum's ancestors dabbling in black magic? Or is there some other reason for the horror befalling the old house?

What has caused the massive crater in the grounds outside? Why is the surrounding vegetation is growing brittle and dying? And who the is the mysterious black-clad figure stalking the house?

As the danger and corruption spread, the Doctor, Melissa and Don Matheson may not survive long enough to find out the answers...

DWAD Year Zero

2011-12-06T17:29:00.001-08:00

1872: a reckless scientific genius cracks the secret to free movement in time and space. One hundred years later, the Third Riech begins a scheme to plunder the future for tactical nuclear weapons to win the Second World War. And one century further in time, the Time Police of New Britain observe events unfold as they should.

When the Doctor spots a homemade time machine floundering in the vortex, it is the beginning of an adventure that will take in the superstitious mobs of Olde England, the paranoid resistance in occupied France and finally the cyborg death machines of a nightmare world where time travel is a capital offence.

His only allies are Philby, the human scientist who started it all, and "Melissa" - an overconfident Time Lady on her first mission in the universe who has next to no respect for the oddly-dressed renegade in the undisguised time capsule.

It's just not the Doctor's day...

A random landing places the Doctor and his new companion Melissa in a deserted city on a Dalek-occupied planet. But the Doctor is more concerned that renegade and imperial Daleks are working side by side on this world, having put aside their differences for a common goal: the salvation of the Dalek species itself.

What has made the Daleks focus on this one insignificant world? Why are they harvesting the population instead of exterminating them? And why is Melissa so reluctant to aid the natives in their fight for survival against the Daleks?

Will the end of one civilization be the beginning of another? And will the horror of the Daleks' true purpose shatter the time travellers' friendship for ever?

It seems the Doctor's luck has finally run out. His precious TARDIS has been annihilated, marooning him on a medieval world not recorded on any star charts where dark forces are waiting to rise.

The Doctor's oldest enemy has returned from beyond the grave, more powerful and brutal than ever. Without friends or shelter, the Time Lord finds himself unable to fight the relentless campaign being waged by the Hounds of Dominus. Little by little, the Time of Subjugation is drawing closer while the events that will end the Doctor's life are also unfolding...

And nothing can stop it.

The Doctor is dead - or is he?

The Master saw him fall, cut down by a hail of arrows and swords, but then a mysterious man in a blue box rescued the Doctor's companions from the onslaught. Who is he if not the Doctor? And how can any Time Lord survive total death?

As the Master and his new allies intertwine the powers of science and magic to remake themselves as gods, the true identity of their enemy is finally revealed. With the fate of not only a whole world but all of reality in the balance, nothing will ever be the same again...

As the TARDIS and her crew struggle to come to terms with the events of the Doctor's eighth regeneration, the time machine is forced to land for emergency repairs on a distant colony world.

These paradise planets are the perfect place for the people of the overcrowded and polluted Earth Empire to start a new life - which begs the question of where have all the colonists gone? Why are the picturesque cities and towns totally deserted? And who are the armored silver figures patrolling the streets?

As the new Doctor and Melissa struggle to work together to learn the answers they discover that there are worse threats to mankind than the return of the Cybermen...

A day trip to 20th Century Earth and a random offer of help leave the Doctor and Melissa trapped in a South London tower block and sealed off from the outside world.

The terrified inhabitants have no clue why the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce have coccooned the block, and nor do they know when the quarantine will be lifted. All they know is that they cannot escape and UNIT will use lethal force if they try.

The Doctor soon learns UNIT have good reason to isolate the tower block, as the threat slowly begins to consume the residents one by one, and it is only a matter of time before he and Melissa are the next to go...

DWAD: The Companion Chronicles

2011-11-25T23:51:00.000-08:00

The further adventures of the Doctor, in which his various companions relate a series of first-person narratives across all of time and space...

PERSISTANCE OF VISION

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Something has stolen Robbie’s sight – and she’s not the only one down to four senses. The TARDIS has taken both her and the Doctor to a strange, dangerous place... not that Robbie can see any of it, of course. The Doctor is convinced that the plague of blindness is down to an outside force, but is less-convinced that the blindness can be cured.

And now poor Robbie’s lost and helpless.

And she can hear something coming for her...

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN!

THE ISLAND OF HORROR

When the TARDIS is drawn off-course and forced down on an unknown world at an unknown point in time, the Doctor and Moira find themselves marooned and under threat from all sides. Amidst the twilight and the ruins, savage and feral creatures feast on the flesh of anything they can sink their claws into. And at the heart of it all is a madwoman who once was the greatest biochemist the Time Lord race ever produced.

While the Doctor tries to discover what the Rani has done, Moira finds herself face to face with the escalating situation outside. The monsters are closing in for the kill, pushing at their limits and becoming more sinister and dangerous every second that passes...

Of all Moira Skye’s adventures with the Doctor, only this one still haunts her to this day.

THE ART OF CRIME

“My name is Dara Louise Hamilton, I’m nineteen years old and I’m a student at the Canterbury School for Girls over across the Channel, back in England. OK, so I don’t have a passport on me at the moment or any local money or even any kind of identification but, honest to God, because it seems I really can’t stress this bit enough to you people, but it’s the truth:

I was not trying to steal the Mona Lisa!”

THE HURDY-GURDY MAN

There’s no such thing as a utopia? Not any more. Something new has come to the world and everything is different. Everything is better. Everyone is happy. There’s no more crime, no more violence, no dissent. Just love and peace, understanding and eternal joy.

This is the world that has been blessed by the Hurdy-Gurdy Man.

And this is the world that the Doctor will destroy the first chance he can get.

It’s a tall order, but he can rely on his friends Kathy and Tori to back him up, can’t he?

...can’t he?

SUBJECTIVE INTERPRETATIONS

Following an apocalyptic galaxy-wide conflict, the survivors of the Human Race have settled on a distant, verdant world. This paradise planet is already inhabited, but Humanity are so advanced that their bloodless invasion is completed within minutes. The natives are now servants, continuing their simple lives under the control and guidance of their new masters.

And then the TARDIS arrived and everything changed forever.

But did it change for good or for worse?

Well, that all rather depends on who you are and how you look at it...

ELEVATED PERSPECTIVE

Abandoned by a disgusted Doctor on a planet of dark forces and insane mystics, it looks like things can’t get any worse for Melissa – and then she ends up stuck in a lift in a run-down hostel. No one knows she’s there, and no one’s coming to her rescue.

It seems that the only person who can help her now... is Melissa herself. But is the ghostly figure that appears in the lift truly her future incarnation made manifest? Or is there another, more sinister reason for her appearance?

Alone against the tide of destiny, Melissa might be better off not knowing...

THE IMPERFECT COMEDY

AS IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW...

CASINO OF THE CYBERMEN

“When you travel with the Doctor, life is pretty much always Double Or Quits.”

Seeking a well-earned break after their recent ordeals, the Doctor finally follows Don’s suggestion for a trip to the infamous planet of Verdex; a world of expensive decadence, neon splendor and glitzy gambling dens. Any pleasure for sale, as long as you can afford the price.

However, it turns out the tacky décor of the Millions of Mondas casino aren’t just a simple lapse in good taste – the Cybermen are running Verdex, and as far as they are concerned every customer is worth their weight in gold.

Don has always said that life is a game.

But is this the game where the house always wins?

CRIMINAL NEGLECT

The TARDIS has brought the Doctor and Charlie to the pitch-dark void between galaxies, a place where even starlight grows cold – where the most dangerous of criminals are held captive. A prison-break is in progress, but the time travelers aren’t nearly in as much danger from the criminals as they are from the authorities.

The prisoners will not be allowed to escape, and their punishment for trying is to be left to the most perfect predator evolution has ever devised. Something more malevolent, more powerful and more dangerous than any inmate – and will show no mercy to innocent bystanders who get caught in the crossfire.

After all, the Weeping Angels shed no tears...

ABUNDANCE OF THE DALEKS

Passing time on a tedious railway journey, Kevin Vasavious recalls his travels in the TARDIS with the Doctor – and a particular adventure where the time machine arrived on an ancient planet that technically no longer existed...

Seeking out the reason for why someone is trying to rewrite the history books, the Doctor and Kevin uncover secrets and expose a conspiracy between the eradication of famine and the expansion of the New Dalek Empire. Even if they escape extermination, nothing will survive the carnage when the seeds of destruction are unleashed.

Is this the way the world will end?

Tony Hill's Review: A Bygone Age

2011-10-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

Having done an anthology that focussed on Doctor Who's richest and most terrifying genre of life and death situations, the DWAD eBooks turn their attention to possibly the least exciting theme. A Bygone Age sounds like it will be full of boring historical periods, intellectual nostalgia and wearying introspection. Thankfully, the 13 stories here aren't as uniformly bland as the title suggests - indeed, this could be the eBook's finest hour.

The first story, Second Chances, pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the collection. The Eleventh Doctor, travelling alone, arrives on a world stripped of life by the Vashta Nerada, far crueller and more aggressive than their one TV appearance. The "twist" ending comes as a real surprise and the whole piece, excellently written, feels like the calm before the storm. The second tale, Creative Disarray, which sees the Tenth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith sort out their awkward reunion during the formation of the Earth, is slightly less bleak and slightly more fun - but suffers from being an obvious remake of Exploration Earth: The Time Machine.

Things improve significantly for the third story, A Difference of Opinion. Although there's nothing new if having the Doctor encounter the Silurians during the time where they ruled the world, the reader's attention is kept by the obvious-in-retrospect idea that the reptile-dominated Earth would be on speaking terms with the similarly lizard-led Mars. In contrast, Sense of Doubt starts off as a rather dull, straightforward historical ghost story but soon picks up into a thrilling game of manipulation and ruthlessness like a Time Lord edition of The Real Hustle.

Having gracefully caught up with the 20th century, Yin-Yang is a proper audio script of the Tenth Doctor and Mark dealing with an ancient threat unleashed in contemporary New York. Examining how little of our own past we can ever truly know, this uses the "Bygone Age" concept to its fullest. Conversely, Tribute is not only a return to prose but focussed entirely on the Master as he attempts to reconcile how Earth can roast in the solar flares (as shown in The Ark in Space) yet be the heart of a mighty space empire (as seen in The Mutants) simultaneously.

From fire to water, as Best Forgotten takes us to a recovered Earth that has no ice caps - but this beautifully ethereal story is focussed more on a side to the Eleventh Doctor and Dara we have never been allowed to view before now. Population Control is much meatier - a creepy holocaust tale of a Rapturous alien presence culling humanity from the Earth in the far future. An unpretentious few of civilization collapsing, the whole thing is impressively dark.

The next story, Dr. Who & The Football Hooligans, is set on an Earth abandoned by anything approaching civilization and gaining alien squatters. A straightforward sketch of the Thirteenth Doctor and Chris' first impressions of each other in a perilous situation, the lack of plot is made up for by the charming friendship the two compatriots reforge.

The Death of the Sun, which features the Fourteenth Doctor infiltrating a Sundarian business deal packs in comedy, drama, fan-wank and pathos in a familiar tale of money-over-compassion and the destruction of Earth as a business opportunity.

With the blue planet long gone, the stories focus further and further into future reaching the very end of time itself. When The Dealing's Done summarises the concept of this collection reasonably well without feeling like a reinteration of themes previously covered. A direct sequel to The Last Colony, the tale of a Doctor having lost his faith in himself leaving Landon and Dillion to save the day. Again, the final twist is a belter and the story exploits the potential of a nihlistic Doctor to counterbalance the comedy of his companions trying to rob a casino.

Cross the Border is the best story in the collection, a charming evocation of the works of Terry Nation with Daleks, artificial planets, experiments with evolution, the indomitability of the human spirit plus the perfect rendition of the magnetic friendship between the Thirteenth Doctor, Moira and Charlie.

Running in parallel to the unfolding history of the universe is the multi-part Genesis of the Cybermen. Determinedly downbeat, the story starts with the Twelfth Doctor and Dillion imprisoned by their own side and the solemn mood continues from there. Sticking close to showing the very beginnings of the men of steel, the story focusses on ancient Mondas as warring kingdoms and how such individuality can so easily be lost to Cyber Conversion. With its mix of court intrigue and historical tragedy, this is a strong conclusion to the anthology and tipifies the depth and feeling present throughout the collection.

After the excellence of On The Edge, this is a welcome return. The linking theme never fells forced or contrived, none of the stories in the collection are less than readable, and the best of them compare well to the finest Doctor Who fiction. This is an excellent eBook.

Robin M's Review: A Bygone Age

2011-10-15T23:26:00.000-07:00

It has been a long while since the DWADs released their first unofficial short story anthology, showing a greater willingness to experiment than their BBC-authorised counterparts. Thankfully, with Short Trips: A Bygone Age, the DWADs once again rise to the challenge of licensed rivals.

The Short Trips title is slightly misleading, for this collection has far more in common with Virgin's Decalogs than with the BBC's Short Trips brand. The overarching theme, the linking narrative, even some of the Doctor/companion combinations... these 13 stories all revolve to a greater, lesser or more contrived extent, with the nostalgia that comes from the passing of time. Each tale features the acceptance that a halcyon age is lost, be it the Age of Reptiles or the irrevocable change that comes when a Doctor gets a new companion.

The stories in this collection thus tend to fall into two categories. There are snapshots of long-gone creatures and organizations intruding into times and places they do not belong, or mood pieces as the TARDIS crew reflect their ever-changing compliments. The former category includes the more high-minded stories - Yin-Yang, featuring prehistoric natives of Earth awaking in 1990s New York, is told in script form like an unrecorded tale left on a script editor's desk. The Doctor and his companion Mark hog the limelight, forced to explain to the audience not only what is happening with the Godzilla-style rampage through Manhattan but also, given the mute creatures at the heart of the plot, why.

The Doctor is similarly forced to justify the apocalypse in Second Chances, in which a mutant breed of Vashta Nerada decimates the population of a frontier planet. The Master himself must take up such a role in Tribute as the seemingly-incompatable societies of The Ark in Space and The Beast Below collide in an apocalyptic conspiracy of Smilers and Solar Flares. Time Lords leaping into the fray to solve historical conundrums takes new heights in A Sense of Doubt, as two reckless teenage Gallifreyans (imagine a cross between Steel and Silver and Beavis and Butthead) simultaneously cause and cure paranormal activity in a 17th Century forest.

At the other end of the scale is Population Control, a mini adventure where the rationale of a strange attack on Earth is left a near mystery despite all the Ninth Doctor's attempts to stop it; and Best Forgotten, an odd tale of unknown companions and wisecracking genies with a suitably grim, ambiguous ending. The Death of the Sun is a more traditional sort of story that wouldn't appear out of place in a Doctor Who Storybook. Clearly inspired by the 1980s era of Sil and Glitz, this satirical offering sees the Fourteenth Doctor sabotaging a science experiment to destroy the Solar System...

There is a good spread of Doctors and companions from the Doctor Who Audio Dramas. The never-before seen combination of the Twelfth Doctor, Dillion and Chris are pit against the titular Genesis of the Cybermen, which takes some care not to contradict the "official" origin of Spare Parts. The Thirteenth Doctor visits a Max-Max-style post-human Earth in Dr. Who & The Football Hooligans, and in Creative Disarray the Tenth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith make peace with each other in a very different way to School Reunion.

Finest of all are the stories set in the dying days of the universe itself, both of which giving us insights into the Doctor and the (arguably) pointless nature of life itself. When The Dealing's Done has the Doctor gripped by nihlistic despair, forcing his companions Landon and Dillion to save the day by trying to scam a Wild-West-style gambling den. Cross The Border, meanwhile, is a particularly moving and well-concieved tale of doom that sees a squad of Daleks unwittingly outlive creation itself and struggle to find a new point to their existence.

Like all short story collections, Short Trips: A Bygone Age is uneven. One or two of these tales are , but to compensate, we're still offered two of the best short stories with When The Dealing's Done and Cross The Border. Apart from the nebulous linking theme (which Genesis of the Cybermen completely ignores), this is a fine collection that bodes well for future releases.

I predict great things to come from the DWAD eBooks range.

D. Spoon's Review: A Bygone Age

2011-10-09T02:16:00.000-07:00

The latest anthology of Doctor Who short stories from DWAD eBooks is A Bygone Era, written and edited by Archibald H Chamber. Perhaps best known for his underground comic series, Chamber has used all his talent to make the collection appeal not only to Who veterans and DWAD fans but even newcomers to the world of internet-published fiction. The theme is, as the title suggests, the inevitable progress of change - and readers are taken on an enjoyable ride through thirteen stories from the dawn of time to the end of the universe and plenty of points between.

The collection opens with Second Chances, the first half of a framing story that turns the anthology into a loop of effect before cause in the best wibbly-wobbly traditions. That's not the only Moffat homage on display as the Eleventh Doctor lands on an alien world infested by Vashta Nerada, the Shadows That Melt The Flesh from 2008's Silence in the Library. The plot is a little limp, and whilst it has some dramatic moments it lacks enough humor to make it engaging. The idea of a planet almost identical to 20th century Earth existing billions of years before life started here seems artificial, but is essentially successful. Ultimately, Second Chances is a functional set-up for what's to come, and in more ways than it might first appear.

Creative Disarray features pitch-perfect portrayals of the Tenth Doctor and his first companion - the older and world-weary Sarah Jane Smith who he has just rescued from certain death and is contemplating rejoining her time traveling friend once again. Concerning a snapshot tour of the formation of the Earth, the tale is simple but extremely enjoyable.

The first of the Doctor's tales actually set on Earth is A Difference of Opinion, which sees the Ninth Doctor and his companions Melissa and Don Matheson sabotage an Earth-Mars conference being held by the Silurians during the age of the dinosaurs. The central concept is interesting enough, is executed successfully, and the prose is littered with lovely humorous moments. There is a less-than-brilliant moment with a flashback to the Eighth Doctor however, which serves no plot function at all and seems left in from some prior draft.

Sense of Doubt is the long-awaited sequel to Simple Logic, a Loki-solo adventure featuring fellow Time Lord Harlan. It's an engaging 17th century ghostbusting plot as Harlan helps the local lord of the manor discover the truth about seemingly haunted woods and the tale shines for its spot-on depiction of Loki and Harlan, with especially good interactions between the two.

Yin-Yang is a splendid Tenth Doctor/Mark Triyad trip set just before their final adventure together. Concerning an anachronistic artefact dug up from the rock beneath New York, it starts off as an ostensibly innocent but interesting yarn, before becoming something genuinely surprising and potentially-controversial towards the end, with a fantastically innovative and daring twist. Written in the format of a proper audio script with pitch-perfect characterization, it's probably the most successful evocation of a period in the entire anthology. Superb.

Up next, with Tribute, a tale set on Earth during the time of the solar flares. The story's requisite "bygone age" shows the last hours of the humans left behind on the surface to fry - everyone else either safe in space arks or on the other side of the galaxy, completely unaware of the catastrophe for PR reasons. The vivid depiction of the world ending leaps off the page with the return of not only the suitably-mercurial Master, but also the Smilers from The Beast Below.

The Eleventh Doctor makes another appearance in the excellent Best Forgotten, a beautifully-written monologue by the expecting Dara Hamilton considering the future of her unborn child and her time aboard the TARDIS she can no longer quite remember. Dara's voice is captured graphically, while the character of Alex complements the regulars fantastically well. This is a colourful and thought-provoking tale, easily another of the anthology's highlights.

The Ninth Doctor turns up with extra companion Lyssa in Population Control in a tale that immediately feels different with a jump from the known to the unknown. A strange force is culling the human race and no one can be entirely sure why - the reason is never explained; only that it is far from benevolent. It's a satisfying enough story, bar the continuing Eighth Doctor flashbacks without rhyme or reason.

The Thirteenth Doctor story Dr Who & The Football Hooligans comes next. It's another post-apocalyptic Earth story, but uses the stock setting of a football match to maintain familiarity, and is hugely fun with some nice moments of bizarreness. It's a nice inconsequential piece with a fine portrayal of Christine, and writing which evokes the James K Flynn era skillfully and with charm.

The Fourteenth Doctor is travelling solo in the breezy tale of The Death of the Sun in which the Sundarians decide to blow up Earth's sun to see what happens. My only quibble would be the bizarre use of the present tense which is rather distracting.

As the anthology begins to draw to a close, we get When the Dealing's Done, a fantastic story in which the Tenth Doctor, Dillion, Landon, Susie-Jo and K9 deal with the aftermath of their (non) trip to Outpost Omega. This small-scale story contrasts nicely with the huge background concepts such as the extinction of humanity, the heat death of the universe and whether free will exists or not. This particular TARDIS crew are great characters; easy to empathise with and their journey in this tale is heartwarming.

The final story is Cross the Border, which in contrast to the opening story shows the dawn of life at the end of the universe rather than the death of a civilization at its beginnings. The Thirteenth Doctor returns to face the Daleks on a planet hurtling through the time vortex, with only Moira and Charlie to help. Naturally, the Daleks don't stand a chance. A nice coda to the anthology rounding off things in a satisfying way, this makes A Bygone Era feel like one coherent adventure rather than a selection of loosely-connected vignettes, and this ultimately enhances the reading experience.

Neatly rounding off the collection is Genesis of the Cybermen, which breaks the mould with a very different form and structure. Written as a three-parter concluding a trilogy of Twelfth Doctor/Cybermen stories, it's an interesting and mostly successful experiment, making for a refreshing and engaging read. Chamber neatly avoids any chance of becoming too bogged-down in continuity, and creates something eminently readable from a subject matter and format which don't immediately lend themselves to this sort of thing.

A Bygone Era is a brilliant triumph. The stories are longer than normal for a Short Trips anthology, giving more of a chance for development and involvement, and the characterisations are (one or two "reinterpretations" aside) consistently perfect. This an author who clearly knows his Who, and cares a lot about the characters.

All fans of Doctor Who should enjoy this collection; regular readers of the DWAD eBook series will find it one of the best anthologies to date. However, non-DWAD fans who choose to pick up the book may find themselves rather lost, because the book does assume a certain level of knowledge of the audios. Regardless, this is a hugely enjoyable collection, and it demonstrates the value of bringing in new voices to the Whoniverse. Fingers crossed that for some more trips in the TARDIS before too long...

SECOND CHANCES: 66%
CREATIVE DISARRAY: 80%
A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION: 73%
SENSE OF DOUBT: 60%
YIN-YANG: 86%
TRIBUTE: 52%
BEST FORGOTTEN: 71%
POPULATION CONTROL: 40%
DR. WHO & THE FOOTBALL HOOLIGANS: 63%
THE DEATH OF THE SUN: 80%
WHEN THE DEALING'S DONE: 76%
CROSS THE BORDER: 70%
GENESIS OF THE CYBERMEN: 69%

COMING SOON: SEVEN DEADLY VIRTUES

2011-08-25T00:27:00.001-07:00

COMING SOON: A BYGONE ERA

2011-06-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

In this town, “humanoid” is just another term for a “four-limbed crispy bar snack!”

The universe is ending.

The TARDIS is crippled.

The Doctor's learned a lesson but lost his faith.

Susie-Jo is worth her weight in mushy peas.

Landon and Dillion intend to break the bank of the local casino.

And a Sycoraxic trouble-maker has just arrived in town...

This story takes place between The Last Colony and Tomb of the Daleks.

Claire's Review: On The Edge

2011-05-31T00:03:00.000-07:00

A Review by Claire

Flouting the notion of canon, Short Trips: On The Edge embraces a wider Doctor Who universe than any BBC Books, Big Finish or Virgin anthology - giving equal footing to the long-established and under-appreciated SegalChord Prodution Doctor Who audio dramas as source material. With the air of a fringe revue, this relaxed collection focusses itself on the adrenaline-junkie existence any TARDIS traveller must embrace if they are to survive.

Doctor Who has always treated danger as something only to take seriously when a cliffhanger is provided and this attitude is not ignored. Too Little, Too Late, showing the TARDIS crew unable to follow instructions properlyl or the double-bill of The Dalton's Last Stand and You Have Got To Be Kidding - with their tongue-in-cheek attitude to historical tragedies - are so silly it could be concieved on a diet of whiskey and mushrooms. Vying for top place amongst this hilarity is the comically-described The Next Journey as the Nimon make a very poor effort of conquering E-Space.

However, there is a fine line between brutal survivalism and gallows humor - a nudge too far in the wrong direction and the story slips into uncomfortable territory. Such an imbalance is found in Recompense; featuring the Doctor save the life of a suicidal, corrupt and murdering ex-policeman. The antagonist is compelling but hardly sympathetic and even the characters can't decide if the Doctor's rescue is either a massive display of compassion or a complete waste of time. The chilling Fool's Errand, however, gets the balance just right with comedy space pirates tackling monsters from HP Lovecraft's worst nightmares.

Making the most effective take on the "life or death" theme is Out of Options shows the Cyber War by way of Vietnam movies as the Doctor and company are hunted through the forests by Cyber troops. As brutal as Predator, it's rather like being dropped into the middle of Casualties of War penned by Gerry Davis and Kit Peddler.

The epic Survival of the Daleks is long enough to be divided into four installments; as with Out of Options, it explores the DWADs' take on the big monsters and their relationship with both the Doctor and the universe. Offering a new perspective on the "lone Dalek warrior" motiff, it faithfully follows the genre while making dark suggestions as to the true state of the Dalek Empire. Unsurprisingly, this idea deserves its expounding into a full-length novella.

Many of the stories are specifically built around the idea of seeing how characters cope when it appears their numbers are up. Simple Logic, the story of a renagade Time Lord and his human companion fighting the zombie apocalypse, needs only a few pages to emerge as one of the collection's most chilling and depressing tales. Meanwhile, Neglecting Nineveh! has the Thirteenth Doctor accepting his inevitable doom by trying to sneak into the afterlife when no one's looking, while The Choice tells of the Master's midlife crisis. This little story, exploring the sheer lack of character development the evil Time Lord has had since 1981, makes the premise naturally funny in the way that, say, selecting the Rani or the Monk wouldn't.

Of the very best, Go Soak Your Head and Acceptable Casualties tie. The former's blatantly slapstick story has the Doctor's companions caught in a Matrix-style virtual reality and go on a pub crawl; it's terrific value and the comedy is never mocking. Acceptable Casualties - a Doctor-lite piece showing the Sontarans and Rutans waging their war in the middle of other people's conflicts - is more conventional (arguably the most so) but perhaps that is it's strength; true, honest Doctor Who you could wrap a title sequence around.

The volume boasts 27 contributions, but the above commentary covers only half of them. Viewed in total, the scope and variety herein gives this Short Trips the edge on its more official precursors. It may not deliver classic Doctors, Torchwood or River Song, but it certainly leaves one wanting more.

Owen D's Review: On The Edge

2011-05-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

A review by Owen D

Doctor Who short fiction, purely by virture of its brevity, can serve a different goal than longer forms; simply and quickly reminding the reader of a particular set of characters rather than having to create whole new worlds over hundreds of pages.

Variously engaging, creaky, moving, bleak and comedic, Short Trips: On The Edge sets its limits from the off - the risks to life and limb to be explored more than an offhand "You're always making that mistake!" from the Doctor about his mortality; and using the characters from the long-running fan audio series - though undisputed "proper" Doctors do appear from time to time.

The anthology is bookended by a pair of stories illustrating the polarisation of styles. Counting Down is a simple, focussed and short picture of the Eleventh Doctor as the Watcher eagerly awaiting his "birth". By contrast, The Step Beyond tells the story of that incarnation faces what lies beyond his "death" and whether or not he's missing out on the land of the living.

The same dichotomy divides the other Doctors' stories, between sketch and saga as a whole, all by the same author. Stretching right back to the beginnings of the Doctor Who Audio Dramas in 1982, the Ninth Doctor and his Time Lady companion Melissa get two adventures - a pure historical and a "sideways" tale that reminds us that Doctor Who had a great format before anyone tinkered with it.

The Dalton Gang's Last Stand is sobered by the senseless tragedy it describes, with absolutely no room for shallow frivolity even given the darkly comic characters of the title. Meanwhile, the affecting narrative steps up a tempo for Mortal Reminders as the Time Lords put themselves in self-imposed quarantine, suffering agonies both mental and physical and contemplate the thought of taking their own lives rather than let an alien disease run its inevitable course. The characterization of the Ninth Doctor and Melissa, with their perfect interplay, are amongst the best in the book.

The longest running audio Doctor gets stories. He appears with Sarah Jane Smith in Fancy Meeting You Here, a one-hundred word snapshot cheekily linking the end of The Andromeda Syndrome to the conclusion of Miss Smith's Big Finish spin-off series. The rest of his adventures are produced with an originality the original source was unable to sustain - as emphasized to the sublime degree by The Decision is Final. Hilarious and self-aware, this story finds the oh-so-secret diary of Dr. Kevin Vasavious, and his cynical yet deluded perspective on the Segal era.

For those whose appetite for the Doctor and friends agonizing over changing history isn't already sated by The Dalton Gang's Last Stand, the slapstic piracy and kangaroo courts of You Have Got To Be Kidding the will be perfect. Ignoring his cameo in Counting Down, the Tenth Doctor sees out the collection in Go Soak Your Head, an engaging portrait of the Landon/Dillion/Susie-Jo/K9 TARDIS team exploring an abandoned space station.

The Eleventh Doctor gets a simplistically daft tale with Mark and Dara in Too Little, Too Late which is refreshing, fun and odd in equal measure. Simple and almost isignificant, it's one of the few stories to remember Doctor Who treats life and death situations with a smile.

I like fiction which gives the Twelfth Doctor depth and motivation beyond the unimaginative veneer of his audio appearances. A Change of Direction has this written through it like Brighton Rock, with the Twelfth Doctor and Christine finding themselves in a deliberately bleak and incomprehensible situation that leads to home truths being spoken. Unlike The Chimera's Game, there is no closure or resolution, or providing a recognisable explanation for the story. Unlike some of the other stories in this collection, it is short enough to be given the re-reading it probably deserves (and possibly requires).

While not providing a similar insight into the mind of the Twelfth Doctor, Recompense nevertheless captures him perfectly. Working as both a sketch and a story, we become interested in the narrator's life but also observe him through the Time Lord's eyes. It's gripping because it illustrates something often ignored in Doctor - ordinary people's trauma from everyday life rather than experiencing the unimagineable.

Out of Options, seeming a cutting from a longer work, contains a vivid portrait of a unique TARDIS crew with the Twelfth Doctor and Dillion seeking refuge from the Cybermen on a jungle planet. Reading like a textually-rendered graphic novel, it creaks towards unbelievability as too many ingredients are thrown into the pot.

Lost in stylish tics and smug critiques, The Wooden Planet is a mock DWM article taking a perverse pleasure in leading the Thirteenth Doctor and Chris through a pointless restatement of every cliche Krynoid-related. Much better is the honest, cliche-ridden chiller of Fool's Errand where the Doctor, Moira and Charlie stumble across a plague-ridden, pirate-controlled, monster-infested derelict spaceship with an unbearably tense climax.

Appropriately, the final story of the Thirteenth Doctor focusses unflinchingly on that fact and Neglectic Nineveh! boasts a mixture of intrigue and levity as the Doctor encounters the Renegade Time Lord equivalent of Heaven in an attempt to be early for his own funeral. Particularly notible is the Doctor's conversation with the fez-wearing Grim Reaper which reads like Doctor Who adapted by Lewis Carroll.

As is the vogue at the moment, Doctor-lite material is also on offer, exploring the other characters and ideas in the universe. Green Means "Go!" doesn't feature the Doctor, but has him as the mechanism for delivering Dara Hamilton to the setting - a very amateurish and ill-thought out ghost hunt in an abandoned motel. UNIT are showcased in Broken Threads, an unrelentingly direct depiction of post-apocalyptic fiction while The Choice focusses on a newly-regenerated Master considering turning over a new leaf. This story is reminiscent of the mid-Atlantic blockbuster Die Hards - and is just as unbearable, rescued only by its darkly comedic ending.

Acceptable Casualties has Mark Triyad face front-line combat for the first time in what feels like a satellite novella, extrapolating that the Zylon war may have impinged on the Sontaran/Rutan conflict in more ways than one. Embodying in a nutshell the theme of the anthology, Simple Logic ties in well with the existing Loki stories and adding weight to an admittedly one-dimensional character. The Next Journey continues the themes of The Un-Men that fuses the whimsey of Season 17 and the hard science of Season 18 into an amusing, gritty hybrid. A fleeting Landon-related incident, You Make A Stand is a bittersweet snapshot as swift as a sneeze.

Despite perfectly evoking innumerable eras of the DWAD chronology, the stories leave me doubtful as to whether the author suits the confines of short fiction - which leads to the epic four-part Survival of the Daleks as the new boy R. Douglas Barbieri takes on the Time Lord's greatest foe. With a central premise easily recalled from both the new series and previous audios, Survival of the Daleks spirals out to an ambitious narrative that adds a dark edge to any previous victories the Doctor might have had over his Skaroine enemies.

Of course, it is the contributions combiting sketch and story which stand up best by themselves - but this is a collection, and those which lean to one extreme support one another. And so my favourite entry is Immoral Victories - where the solo Eleventh Doctor stumbles across an alien feud he resolves simply by being himself. In a few short pages, it reminds me why I like the Doctor Who Audio Dramas so much, and also how creative fans can make it even more rewarding.

Rupert Woosing-Gard's Review: On The Edge

2011-05-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

A Review by Rupert Woosing-Gard 5/30/11

For those of us who still lament the end of Big Finish's Short Trips anthologies - which threw up a few of the most polished gems in all of Doctor Who literature - finding a partial resurrection in the form of DWAD eBooks is massively welcomed. At the very reasonable price of absolutely bugger all you get over a staggering 387 pages with six Doctors, their respective companions, acquaintenaces and enemies, in tales ranging from broad comedy to thought provoking science fiction. Offering tales which are as different to each other as they are to Doctor Who stories you'll find elsehwere.

First up is The Step Beyond which is as much like a Twilight Zone episode it is Doctor Who, but your mileage may vary on whether that works in its favor. Told with a genuine sense of sleepy melancholy, it sees the Doctor on the verge of regenerating for the eleventh time and no longer certain what is reality any more, immediately flagging up On The Edge's theme of life-or-death scenarios and gets the collection off to a superb start.

Next up in the rather less ethereal Fools' Errand, an Aliens-esque tale that blend space opera and Lovecraftian horror with ease and is probably the best evocation of the volume's themes of survival at any cost. Though they are slightly passive, the Thirteenth Doctor, Moira and Charlie have never been better characterized, being wise, passionate and cautious as ever.

Things take a less serious turn when companions Dillion and Landon have a close encounter with a liquid computer in Go Soak Your Head, an ensemble piece that is the funniest in the collection. Amusing and whimsical, it's a welcome breather from the harsher and more cynical tales on offer.

Too Little, Too Late is a sneeze of a story played for comic effect as the Eleventh Doctor accidentally sets the console room on fire when following instructions in the TARDIS manual for once.

The Dalton Gang’s Last Stand tells of the eponymous shootout where the Ninth Doctor and Time Lady Melissa are horrified and helpless bystanders to established history. Though not without charm, the theme is rather labored and as a result the story is not entirely successful.

A Twelfth Doctor tale, Recompense, grimly compares the Time Lord to a self-destructive police officer who has ultimately caused more harm than good. Focussing more on the soap-opera-like tragedies of this one-off character than the TARDIS crew, it feels like the time travelers are merely an excuse to get from A to B.

An effectively-creepy ghost story, Green Means 'Go' has ex-companion Dara Hamilton risk not only her life but that of her best friend and unborn child spending a night in a haunted hotel in the off-chance the Doctor might drop by to sort things out. Owing much of its effect to urban legends and 'it happened to a friend of a friend of mine' style Chinese Whispers, Dara coming to terms with obsession and abandonment end the story on a poignant note.

Despite purporting to be one of the most traditional tales ever, The Wooden Planet is anything but. The Thirteenth Doctor and Chris fighting Krynoids in a monastery feels as unusual and unsafe as any of the other tales and the fact that it's told in the caustic tones of a scathing DWM article - ridiculing the plot holes and hastily-rewritten-for-a-different Doctor script - is an added bonus.

Another ex-companion appears in The Next Journey as Susie-Jo and K9 mk 4 adapt to life in E-Space by dealing with an all-too-familiar threat from N-Space. Balancing the lighthearted Season 17 with its gritty hard-science successor, if any story could claim to have something for everyone, it would be this one.

Mortal Reminders is a slightly-more straight-lacked piece with the Ninth Doctor and companion Melissa trapped and facing a lingering death in the form of an incurable plague. As voyeuristic as an episode of Big Brother or a brutal wildlife documentary, it is both unpleasant and compelling as the duo fight off not only the effects of disease but insurmountable despair.

A second drabble, You Make A Stand, shows Landon's death on Gallifrey and remains undecided if this sacrifice was noble or senseless.

Out of Options is a Twelfth Doctor/Dillion adventure that runs out of steam before its conclusion and is perhaps the only story here that could have done with being longer to really explore its themes - particularly with the Cyberman/Canis war backstory. A sequel to an untold story is, as TimeLash showed, rarely a good thing.

Acceptable Casualties is a tale that talks about grief and loss and the meaning of bravery in a very cerebral way, showing the first time Mark Triyad saw action in the Zylon War and featuring the return of two unexpected enemies.

Those wondering what the Master might get up to when the Doctor's not around spoiling things will find The Choice going further than most to show the evil Time Lord finding himself on the side of right for entirely the wrong reasons.

Similar uncharacteristic behavior occurs with the Eleventh Doctor refusing to take sides in a bloody nuclear conflict on an alien word in Immoral Victories.
Told in a whimsical style to balance out the dark content, this is a fine inclusion and its ending the most cheerful thing Doctor Who has done for a long time.

Despite being rougly halfway through the volume, Neglecting Ninevah sets out to be the Final Doctor Who Story Ever, with flashbacks featuring every Doctor be they TV, audio or otherwise. Trevor Martin is given equal billing to David Tennant, Barbara Beneditti rubs shoulders with Nicholas Briggs. Despite the lengthy cameo from the Seventh Doctor, this is the Thirteen Doctor's story through and through as he makes his final journey. The idea of the Doctor being unable to even die in the right order is as fantastic as its consequences are worrying.

Another blink-and-you'll-miss-it snapshot is Fancy Meeting You Here!, a much-needed happy ending for Sarah Jane Smith which she has been sadly deprived of with the cancellation of both her TV and audio spinoffs.

From hereon in, things take a steadily darker and bleaker tone. Simple Logic sees B-grade villain Loki long before he crossed swords with the Doctor recklessly travelling further into the future than anyone has a right to go. Suffice it to say, this is forbidden territory for a reason and the story is very much one of a skin-crawling nightmare few would want to read a second time.

The arrestingly-titled You Have Got To Be Kidding... struggles to be breezy and humerous as the Tenth Doctor and company encounter a clueless privateer with chronic bad luck, but it slips into brooding melancholy towards the climax and ends on a grim note at the gallows.

In A Change of Direction, a close shave with the Ice Warriors and a close encounter with a unicorn push the friendship between the Twelfth Doctor and Christine past the point of no return. Like the other stories in this volume, it forces the regulars to confront something about themselves and finishes on a thoughtful, if despiriting, note.

Broken Threads sees a small contingent of UNIT unwittingly surviving an apocalyptic diaster that sends mankind back to the Stone Age and coming to the conclusion that there are catastrophes that even the Doctor cannot prevent.

In a pleasing contrast is The Decision is Final, which plays like somthing from the diaries of Adrian Mole as an unpopular TARDIS crewmember slags off his companions and adventures behind their backs in a private journal.

The so-substantial-as-to-be-epic four episode Survival of the Daleks is a fast-paced thriller pitting the Fourteenth Doctor and Robbie against the ultimate enemy, but still keeps an air of the character pieces elsewhere in the collection. The Doctor, Robbie, the Dalek and its numerous unfortunate victims all have their point of view relayed in this extermination-bloodbath where, typically, human weakness cause more problems than any homicidal cyborg. The epilogue is terrifying and leaves the reader with a shiver.

Counting Down ends the collection with a Tenth Doctor piece, told from the point of view of a Watcher observing that incarnation's final battle and appropriately concludes on an optimistic, forward-looking note.

On the whole, On The Edge is a highly-impressive collection that lives up to the printed anthologies by being brilliantly eclectic and exciting. For its variety alone, this should appeal to any Doctor Who fan. It contains no real disappointments, but if I were being picky, then the generic nature of the theme means that the actual plots end up a bit too traditional - but that's a tiny niggle about a great release.

notyoa's Review: On The Edge

2011-05-21T00:33:00.000-07:00

A Review by notyoa 5/21/11

In this age where Doctor Who is the biggest hit on television, where about five hours of officially-licenced audio drama comes out every month along with three full-length novels, two comic books and three seperate magazines, there's so much material it beggars belief that short story anthologies are considered fashionable. Where are we going to have time to read them? Especially given the new series' continual trampling over every and all previous franchises!

The only gimmick in this collection is that they are not based on TV stories but some little-heard of fan audios that have managed to chug along for 30 years or so without anyone taking any notice. A glimpse at the official website is impressive to see how stone-age the whole thing is, and it probably hasn't improved since 1982. Considering how high quality the Audio Visuals were in the 1980s, it left me speechless that some terribly-edited and cliched stories (stuffed full with sampled music and sound effects, none of which under a decade old) are still being made. As I said, with the show back on air, any fan productions are dubious but the DWADs remind me of a bunch of kamikaze soldiers on a jungle island, unaware the war is over and still struggling to make a railroad with old twigs and bones...

Its seldom I make the comment "don't you have anything better to do?" but it seems even I have to draw the line sometimes.

Given the DWADs' inability to grasp decent photoshop, sound editors or proper HTML, it's a miracle this isn't handwritten in a spare school notebook, or typed up on newsprint... but no, this is a half decent PDF, nice font and some occasionally competent writing. The author is a friend of a friend of mine, but not so close I can't insult him as I see fit. First and foremost is the anecdote he only wrote these stories because none of the other "hardcore" fans could be bothered. Whether this is down to general lethargy, lack of talent or maybe because they don't actually exist is up to the public to decide. The fact remains that this is not so much flogging a dead horse but taking it to the taxidermist and trying to get it disguised as a sheep.

It appears that, like proper Doctor Who, the DWADs early years are missing - because even they think the stories are rubbish, apparently. Thus, several of the stories are, in terms of the characters, completely invented by the author rather than based on established episodes. Which is fair enough, but surely doing the whole thing with original characters would be easier than struggling to rehabilitate a bunch of faceless walking plot devices, some of which are just old companions in witness protection - Melissa is Romana, Dara is Dodo, Kevin is Harry, Charlie is Adric, Robbie is Martha... and even the Doctors are suspiciously familiar, with the Segal and DeNatale ones clearly copying the Bakers rather than any independant thought. Turning the Savage Doctor directly into Eccleston seems almost upholding a tradition, and at least the proper Ninth Doctor is interesting, rather than a blurry sound effect trying to pass himself off as Pertwee.

Although not close friends with Arco, I know he has a wickedly cynical streak in him and suspect he wrote these stories with the intent to take the piss out of the DWADs - and this honorable enough intention was what convinced me to wade through the best part of four hundred pages instead of doing something more constructive like snorting cocaine off a stripper's tits with a 100 dollar bill I then could give to some homeless guy...

Gosh, I'm generous. On with the Motley!

"The Step Beyond"
The volume begin with a brief little "is it a dream?" tale of the Doctor's regeneration. I can't help but think there's some kind of agenda when the Coburn Doctor gets to go to heaven with his friends while the deNatale Doctor stumbles around in the TARDIS, being an arse. It reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Ned corners Homer in a boring conversation and Homer's brain floats off, leaving the body to suffer. Still, I liked it. 7/10

"Fool's Errand"
A bunch of cliches as Revenge of the Cybermen, The Space Pirates and The Unquiet Dead are crammed together. This is quite a good story, but the Flynn Doctor just stands on the sidelines wisecracking and then runs away. This story doesn't seem to have any real satirical edge, sadly. 5/10

"Go Soak Your Head"
And back again! The Segal team gets mocked yet rehabilitated with the Segal Doctor's idiocy treated with contempt by all his companions, who are - after all - much more interesting than a second-rate Tom Baker impersonator. Landon and Dillion could get their own spin-off, but it's clear they've never come so close to being three-dimensional before. Even Susie-Jo bemoans how childlike and useless she is. Reminded me a bit of Red Dwarf, particularly the Star-Trek-speech parody at the end. 10/10

"Survival of the Daleks"
Not much humor in this, but it's clearly an attempt to salvage the DWADs at present, with an unlikeable arthritic twat was the Doctor and a deadpan bimbo as the companion, and the Daleks which are now at a level below the Quarks in terms of interest and respect. So we have a story that the Doctor's bullying and bad knees nearly get him killed, Robbie is traumatized by the slaughter done, of all things, by one of those godawful red Daleks from the new series. Just goes to show we might have liked the redesign if they'd done anything interesting, instead of just sat there looking stupid and plastic. There's some genuinely good stuff in this, and for some reason the purple Dalek Prophet lingers most in my mind. 8/10

"Too Little, Too Late"
An unfunny TARDIS scene. 0/10

"The Dalton Gang’s Last Stand"
Again, not really taking the mickey or subverting the norm. It could easily have been set in contemporary America as a drive-by-shooting, but the Doctor and Melissa's reaction to human aggression are very good. I'd give it a high mark except I prefer stealth parodies. 8/10

"Recompense"
Give me strength. The deNatale Doctor saves a suicidal serial killer from certain death and allows him a new start in Australia where he can no doubt continue killing people with fire bombs. For once I dunno if this is a bad story or a very good parody, but once again the deNatale Doctor is snubbed, making a cameo appearance. 3/10

"Green Means 'Go'"
A nice creepy take on an urban legend, and it gets quite tense at times. I laughed myself stupid at the portrayal of Dara, retconned as being so completely in denial that she risks death and mutilation while 7 months pregnant on the off-chance the Doctor can come back to her. Maybe she and Michelle could get a sitcom where Michelle has to be the babysitter while Dara wears a straightjacket and waits for the TARDIS to turn up. Points off for no girl-on-girl-action-in-haunted-hotel though. 6/10

"The Wooden Planet"
Hilarious! It's a Ben Chatham review of a story that doesn't have the guts to even exist, but it's written with such righteous hatred and itemized reasons to despise it you can only beg for it to end. The acidic review is blessed relief, and reinforces the fact you're not supposed to like it. And it was a deNatale script, what a surprise... 10/10

"The Next Journey"
Short, one-note, but kind of good. Having established Susie-Jo has no personality, this empty vessel is filled with 4-star angst petrolium and put up against a monster that's wittier than several of the Doctors in this collection. Even the author gets bored, though, and kills everyone at the end. 5/10

"Mortal Reminders"
Another story depressingly free from biting commentary. The Doctor and Melissa get the plague, go camping, get cured. But do they do the nasty? Tch tch. 8/10

"You Make A Stand"
The Segal Doctor lost a lot of companions, so why not kill them all? It's amusing that Landon finally gets the guts to stand up to a monster, only to be able to do nothing at all except die. Ouch! 7/10

"Out of Options"
What's this? A deNatale story that doesn't drip with hatred for the Doctor? Mind you, it starts with him nearly bleeding to death, then giving up and having a childish argument about it. Dillion is back, seemingly the only ex-companion to have a halfway decent post-TARDIS life. The Cybermen appear for slightly longer than this sentence. The very existence of this story is making a point, but I'm not sure what that point is. 4.5/10

"Acceptable Casualties"
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. No fun here, as Mark Triyad goes up against the Sontar-HA!-tarans, wets himself with fear, and then becomes a REAL man. 9/10

"The Choice"
If it IS broke, do all you can! A hilarious tale of the Master realizing what a one-note tool he is and trying to turn himself into a homocidal Captain Jack Sparrow, which is more interesting than the Ainley impersonator the DWADs have been offering for the last TWENTY-FIVE BLOODY YEARS. The reinvented Master's a movie lover, judging by his quotes from The Wicker Man and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. 10/10

"Immoral Victories"
A Coburn story that sets out to be nothing but amusing nonsense. 7.5/10

"Neglecting Ninevah"
This story is many things. A moving analysis of the balance between life and death. A celebration of 45 years of Doctor Who. An explanation for the regeneration limit. Disturbingly similar to The Doctor's Wife. But most of all it's a chance to see a fez-wearing Matt Smith kick Flynn's arse, celebrate a bucket load of other fan products way better than the DWADs, and then bugger off. ALLONZEEE! 10/10

"Fancy Meeting You Here!"
Meh. Crossover with SJS: Dreamland. Frankly in that situation, I'd rather have risked death on a crippled space shuttle than travel with the Segal Doctor - he's about three times as dangerous anyway. 2/10

"Simple Logic"
A zombie apocalypse story with a main character more interesting than the one he's supposed to become in the audios. Not very funny, or satirical, but well written. 6.5/10

"You Have Got To Be Kidding..."
Pirates. Whatever. Boring. 0/10

"A Change of Direction"
Ooh, a dark and blistering tale... about how much the deNatale Doctor sucks. Giving him a Freudian excuse for his behavior is balanced by Christine tearing him a new one and starting the story with him getting his legs broken by an easily-annoyed Ice Warrior. Christine's suicidal urges raised a smile too. It's clear this is a TARDIS crew more dysfunctional than Torchwood! And unicorns are apparently fictional. As a unicorn myself, that's half a point off for factual inaccuracy. 9.5/10 Oh, wait, it was the deNatale Doctor who said that. 10/10

"Broken Threads"
Ever wonder how that dumbass Colonel from The Five Doctors would cope with the apocalypse? No, nor me, and the answer "he wouldn't" isn't really a surprise. Giving characters like that a third dimension feels as strange as Bert explaining to Ernie his mother never breastfed him. 5/10

"The Decision is Final"
Hah! The author lets rip as a companion gives one-line bitchy reviews of the Segal era. This isn't in any way what humans call "subtext". Awesome. 10/10

"Counting Down"
Hmmm. The Watcher can't wait for the Segal Doctor to die so the good stuff can begin. Detecting a slight bias to the Coburn era, Chamber? 10/10

All in all, a worthwhile compendium of stories.

But get a better subject matter next time, eh?

Ursula's Review: On The Edge

2011-05-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

So many Doctor Who story anthologies or collections consist of fiction chosen for their own merits, without any worrying about fan divides - you can have a story about the Peter Cushing Doctor followed directly by an angsty post-'Trial' Sixth Doctor, for example. But this collection is exclusively based in the worlds of the fan audio series the DWADs, and given their longevity if not infamy, they probably deserve one. I knew next to nothing about the audios, but between the easily-understood nature of the stories and the handy continuity guide at the back, there's no real excuse not to read them.

'Short Trips: On The Edge' was a pleasure to read, even for those who who discriminate on nothing other than quality. The layout of is crisp, consistent and professional. The cover artwork is of a high quality; and the proofing is damn near perfect, by God, at least for the first twelve hours before you spot all the typos...

On to the fiction. Given there is a single author, the twenty-plus stories have great variety of tone and content. There are three little drabbles ('Too Little, Too Late', 'You Make A Stand' and 'Fancy Meeting You Here!') flagging up the theme of how characters cope facing certain death in the Whoniverse. Ranging from the moving to the tongue-in-cheek, it demonstrate excellent crafting of the one-hundred word drabble limit.

Dealing with the stories in order of Doctor, we get three dispatches from the realm of the Vincent Savage incarnation - the one we know least of, and the one the author is most suspicious of (in regards to the infamous "Vincent Savage" is a made-up name for Dave Segal talking in a deep voice which, it must be said, is hard to argue with on what we can hear on the website). Since the unofficial dubbing of Savage as the Ninth Doctor, that is precisely what Chamber gives us - the "By eck! Fantastic!" version requiring a shaved head and a Northern accent. This isn't as challenging as it might first appear, given Dreamscape showed us a Doctor that acted like a very posh-talking Eccleston anyway. Maybe Melissa gives him some elocution lessons at some point?

The first story, 'The Dalton Gang's Last Stand' is a Wild West historical, translating real life events into the Whoniverse - and the idea the TARDIS unwittingly ruined the gang's robberies actually portrays them in a better light. Considering Who's last dipping into the genre, it would be easy to turn this into a cowboy pastiche but this story paints the events of that day are portrayed as terrible real life horrors. The image of Melissa compulsive washing the blood of innocent bystanders from her lingers as much as the Doctor crooning a pop song about the Daltons as the bodies are dragged away, both feeling absolutely credible and true to the characters involved.

Next up is the more sci-fi 'Mortal Reminders'. Instead of being helpless witnesses to a tragedy, the Doctor and Melissa are now at the heart of it, struck down with a deadly plague and forced to hide out in quarantine at the Eye of Orion. Here the challenge is not just to outlive the virus but also to fight off the rising despair of their situation, one falls into depression, one (seemingly?) goes mad, one attempts to take their own life, and one refuses to give up. Finding out which does what is just one of the marvellous twists in this story, especially when a surprising guest star arrives to give a pep talk that does more harm than good.

While I don't always agree with the take on the characters (Savage as a well-adjusted Eccleston), these stories are executed with such style and intelligence that, frankly, who cares that it doesn't match my own view? Fan-fiction is all about interpretation, and it's easily as interesting to read other people's as to construct one's own.

'The Decision Is Final' segues out of the Savage era and into the Segal one, as told in the ever-so-secret diary of Kevin Vasavious as he keeps finding himself drawn into the TARDIS and its adventures. Given that only two of Kevin's stories are available to hear, it's pushing at an open door at the suggestion that Kevin was a whining bore, completely unaware of how useless, unpleasant and unattractive he was - but his criticisms of the Doctor, the other companions and the formulaic stories they went through are tougher to place. Is this an amusing AU or a bleak interpretation of what actually happened? Until the DWADs release the relevent stories, we might never know. Something like this could only exist as fan fiction, and is all the better for it.

When I read the remaining Segal era stories ('You Have Got To Be Kidding...', 'Go Soak Your Head!' and 'Counting Down'), I was surprised to see the implications of Kevin's diary were not carried out. Rather than being an irresponsible sociopath, the Segal Doctor is portrayed faithfully as an arrogant, if well-intentioned Fourth Doctor clone, albeit with a rather poor success rate. The other companions all feel more substantial and believable, from the mad flirting of Tom and Sara, the grumbling put-upon K9, the detached Landon, Dillion the headcase and the frustrated, child-like Susie-Jo... Interestingly, while we were allowed to see the Savage Doctor's POV, with Segal we are always an outsider. Perhaps future stories will scratch beneath the all-too-familiar surface and show us what makes this Doctor really tick?

While the Coburn Doctor makes plenty of appearances in the collection, he only gets two stories to himself - the surreal anti-war polemic 'Immoral Victories' where he is companionless, the only sane man in a world that refuses to take itself seriously, and 'The Step Beyond'. The latter is clearly based on the long-held fan concept (recently canonized by RTD) that the individual incarnation of the Doctor, his soul and consciousness, die during regeneration and a new man takes over. This story asks the logical question: what happens to the ex-Doctor while the new guy swans off? 'The Step Beyond' could easily have been a fannish desire to salvage a happy ending, but it is a celebration of the Coburn Doctor, his companions and Doctor Who itself, and damn near makes the deNatale's exasperating behavior in his first episode seem halfway logical for once.

Unsurprisingly for a shortlived incarnation who never faced any classic monsters, the deNatale Doctor bumps into Cybermen and Ice Warriors, not to mention an old companion in 'Out of Options' and 'A Change of Direction' respectively. In accordance with 'Recompense', all three question this Doctor as to his motives and actions, turning his canonical string of failures, mistakes and near-misses into a retrospective story arc. 'A Change of Direction' out and out demands this Doctor justify his unpleasant and often pointless behavior, from his off-the-top-of-his-head plan to destroy Gallifrey and the Time Lords to deliberately keeping Chris ignorant. The fact there's actually an answer, without comfort or self-pity, is only one of a number of masterstrokes in this story. This is a superb piece of character-driven critical fiction, and helps make this frankly useless incarnation finally feel like a proper and worthy (if unlikeable) Doctor.

The next Doctor, gets three stories of varying styles and tones. 'The Wooden Planet' is a scathing DWM article about what was clearly a deNatale script hastily rewritten, while 'Fools' Errand' is a traditional space adventure with the shortlived but very popular Moira and Charlie lineup. It's clever in its themes of how survival override morality, and how you can justify anything on the grounds it can keep you alive. This is the springboard for the final Flynn story, 'Neglecting Ninevah', where the Time Lord considers allowing himself to die without a fight. This sad tale is a particular favorite, not merely from the lovely images - Matt Smith in a fez plays the grim reaper, we get to see some of Season 6b, the First Doctor and Susan fleeing Gallifrey, the first female Doctor, the death of the Eighth incarnation and so much more. It draws a detailed and convincing picture of how the DWADs and the New Series might or might not fit together, as well as an answer for how there is now more than thirteen Doctors.

The final Doctor gets the longest story, a most skillfully-executed blending of continuity and action adventure in 'Survival of the Daleks'. Anyone can do a story about a Dalek zapping people, but it's one of several stories studying psychological despair. There's a lovely blend of continuities and canons, with a New Paradigm Dalek Drone on a world from the 1960s Dalek comic strips, and how this ties in with the DWAD Dalek stories. The sequence where the Doctor visits the mind of a Dalek and nearly goes mad seeing all the death and pain it has caused is one of several moments in the story that imperceptibly grips its hands around your throat.

Of the other short stories, they focus on companions and enemies fending for themselves without the Doctor to help or hinder them. These tales take the source material and from it produce something first class that is uniquely inventive yet profoundly evocative of the show, and of a standard that could make professional writers weep. While 'Broken Threads' is just a summary of the backstory to 'Empire of the Daleks', 'The Choice' is a cool dissection of the cruelties of desire shown in a regenerated Master trying and failing to mend his ways. Susie Jo in 'The Next Journey' is well aware of being forgotten and abandoned, and refusing to let it hamper her mission to bring peace to her new home. 'Green Means "Go"' is a delicate and chilling ghost story, where a gravid Dara finally comes to accept she is no longer part of the Doctor's life.

And then there's 'Acceptable Casualties', a story of the resilience of humanity as a young redshirt ensign is left the only survivor by a surprise attack by a Sontaran battle group. It puts aside simplistic first impressions and concentrates on telling a bloody good story. Chamber has done the DWADs proud in writing this story that makes one of their most popular companions even more 3-dimensional than he already was, as well as restoring interest in the Star Cruiser/Zylon saga.

Loki's origin story, 'Simple Logic' crept up on me unexpectedly. Was Loki a Time Lord, a human or one pretending to be the other? I have no idea and it's clear that, towards the end of this story niether was Chamber. Nevertheless I was impressed and disturbed by the idea that life itself is an abbertion the universe is afflicted with. Powerful stuff. It's beautifully-paced and a convincing exploration of how someone as crazy and screwed-up as Loki could have started out, as well as his desperation to escape death at all costs. Quite simply one of the best fan fics ever written.

Anyone claiming that fan fiction cannot be as good as professional fiction should be forced to read this until they understand the point. This is the kind of collection that you wait years to get your hands on.

It's almost thirty years since the DWADs began, and an anthology of such imagination, consistency, and sheer bloody quality is a fitting tributes. This is a superb achievement and congratulations to Arco Chamber. Here's to 'Short Trips 2: A Bygone Era'.

Ursula McCormick
May 2011

Alex S's Review: On The Edge

2011-05-13T17:19:00.000-07:00

Short Trips: On The Edge
reviewed by Alexander Sorne

I. CONCEPT, PRESENTATION, ART, ETC

A well-thought out evocation of the BBC Books anthologies of the last century, even down to the fonts! The mock-Shakespeare sonnet by Colin Baker is cute, but goes on a bit too long, to the point one wonders if it's only there to bulk up the already-considerable page count. The introduction sets the tone and spells out the theme for the anthology, but perhaps a bit too directly. The character guide is similarly straightforward, however the attempt to spice it up with bitchy and irreverent humor could easily backfire - why would anyone want to read stories about such characters if they are all so stupid, shallow and cliched? Each story has its own little continuity placement tagline, though while this allows the reader to slot the tales into the neat one-page-program guide at the back of the book, it is next to useless for any stories prior to Planet of the Dead (the program guide only lists available and complete stories, up to and including Might of the Starry Sea).

The colour front cover is a deliberate evocation of the first Short Trips cover, a floating head arrangement of all Doctors against some lilac-purple starscapes. It's very well done, bar turning Barbieri's top hat into a bowler one - though it would have covered up half of Savage's face otherwise. In fact, the realy problem with the cover is the lack of proper photos for several of the Doctors, meaning we get the stock images of Savage, deNatale and Barbieri. The swirling Gallifreyan symbol from the new series is a nice break from the traditional Seal of Rassilon. The company logo is on the cover, but is too blurred to be instantly recognizable.

II. CONTENT

All stories are firmly based in the DWAD continuity - though it's deliberately murky in Neglecting Ninevah and the Time War and New Paradigm Daleks appear at various points. This collection demonstrates the sheer range of different Doctors and companions from the traditional staples of Survival of the Daleks, through the "offscreen" adventures of the Master and companions to the cleverly bleak Loki-origin tale Simple Logic. Similarly, the characters inhabit a broad range of settings from the gritty sci-fi of the Zylon Wars, the turbulant darkn ages of E-Space, through to several historical periods of America (perhaps reflecting the birthplace of the DWADs themselves). A very broad range of styles and tones, and a good mix of characters and seasons (while the Barbieri Doctor gets only one story, it's almost as long as all the others put together - the average being three stories per Doctor, including Drabbles).

There's some good black comedy, some cracking one liners, and the overall feel is character rather than plot driven. While there is some graphic violence in the historicals there's no explicit sex, the most extreme example being Green Means Go with a gossipy pregnant teenager as the central character. No poetry unless you count the Ninevah rhyme, and quite a few monster cameos (working on the assumption presumably someone might read a story for having Ice Warriors in it rather than a character-driven exploration of a season, I assume). There are some direct sequels to The Seeds of Doom, The Horns of Nimon, The Sontaran Stratagem and The Monster of Peladon, and the Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Doctors make appearances and are perfectly in character.

III. THE INDIVIDUAL STORIES

1. The Step Beyond (4 pages)
I was really confused at the beginning of this story, which seemed to be in flagrant violation of canon and sticking really close to it all at the same time, but by the end it came triumphantly and shockingly clear. A devious, ingenious gem from a twisted mind. Clever and punchily written.

2. Fool's Errand (18 pages)
Well-written, thoughtful, and great characterization. Strong, dark plot with the emotional consequences of the action thoroughly explored in the dialogue. Even though I adamantly reject the idea that the Doctor would run away from a fight, this story convinced me. An added bonus is the monster, which is never properly seen or described and comes across as one of those cosmic horrors HP Lovecraft came up with.

3. Go Soak Your Head (20 pages)
A fantastic rendition of the friendly, borderline-sitcom set up of the later Segal era, with a good balance between solid plot, emotional characterization, and sidesplitting insults between the TARDIS crew. With no original characters, the focus is very much on the regulars and their interactions - the Landon/Dillion dynamics are particulaly good. Things end on an upbeat note for the first time in the collection, as well.

4. Survival of the Daleks - Escape or Die (11 pages)
Part 1 of a 4-part Dalek story with the RDB Doctor and Robbie, blatantly based on Rob Shearman's Dalek with a drone being tortured in the basement of a space musuem. I'm not sure how well the decision to split the story's episodes up and distribute them throughout the collection works, but on the other hand reading them all together might have been a bit much. Hmmm.

5. Too Little, Too Late (1 page)
This is just silly. A vignette exploring the traditional relaxed attitude to danger the TARDIS travellers have, ranked up to Carry On Up The Khyber levels.

6. The Dalton Gang's Last Stand (13 pages)
A pure historical with a little-known Doctor/Companion combination, there is a lot that could go wrong with this story but thankfully none happen here. The briefly-sketched outlaws of the title are fully enough drawn for their fates to have an impact. With the Wild West, cowboys, shoot outs and a musical track, this is like The Gunfighters on strong coffee instead of fizzy cola. The sequence where Melissa finds herself joining the townsfolk in ogling the displayed corpses is a moment of stark reflection on voyeurism and celebrity culture simultaneously.

7. Recompense (6 pages)
It's difficult to write a plausible original character in so short a space and this one manages it with ease: meet PC Rod Murray, an old-skool copper whose good intentions pave the road to hell. Guilt-ridden, sarcastic and self-destructive, Murray is simultaneously compelling yet unloveable. The deNatale Doctor and Christine are kept on the sidelines, and come across as fanciful and two-dimensional in comparison to the domestic carnage witnessed here. The story challenges our hero how he can claim the moral highground, and significantly fails to come up with an answer. Strangely unsatisfying.

8. Green Means "Go" (21 pages)
Lovely detailed milieu, with perfect little descriptive/ physical details. Clearly driven by a great love of and sympathy for Dara, this just avoids descending into slavering Doctor-worship and a very effective ghost story spinning delicately round the darkness of the themes and the depth of characterisation.

9. The Wooden Planet (15 pages)
Rather than telling us a story, this is an analysis and review of a story - a gothic tale of monks, artificial planets and a new dark age. Nice ideas, but we can't give them justice, only read about someone else's opinion of them. As such the material seems to be trying to point out the flaws and problems before the reader can spot them. Basically a story outline continually interrupted by bullet points and footnotes, it's easy to lose track of what's going on. Interesting, original - but really hard to review.

10. The Next Journey (17 pages)
A depressing take on events following Susie-Jo's departure from the TARDIS in a sequel to one of the most unpopular stories in the TV canon, but there's some real strong characterization with the monster, particularly when he observes a character breaking their toe kicking the corpse of an enemy as "enormously symbolic". Despite ending on an cliffhanger, it's great to see Susie-Jo kick some ass for a change.

11. Survival of the Daleks - Servants of Masters (18 pages)
As the story continues it becomes more original and less formulaic. The Dalek's attempts to escape using niether its gunstick or psychology are strange and wild, making it more of a primal monster than ever before. There's some great characterization of the regulars, seeing the new Doctor do the traditional stuff of working in labs, arguing with authority figures and facing down death unblinkingly. The cliffhanger puts a new spin of events and bodes well for the next installment.

12. Mortal Reminders (18 pages)
Semi-sequel to The Dalton Gang's Last Stand, with the Savage Doctor and Melissa. The non-linear narrative works well, with a solid premise and plausible reactions. This is a great story with a "bonus" of a lovely Eighth Doctor cameo.

13. You Make A Stand (1 page)
A short, sad piece about the death one of the Doctor's companions. There are some really wonderful images and the last line is really, really moving.

14. Out of Options (9 pages)
Spinning off from the untold deNatale adventure in The Webs of Time, this story is a sequel to the Cyber/Canisian conflict of the Segal years, with Dillion returning as a companion to a different Doctor (it works as well as Sarah Jane becoming a regular in the Tenth Doctor era - but if that's a good thing or not I will leave up to you for decide). The Cybermen barely appear, but their description of organics as "fleshmen" was interesting. The indestructible goblins are written as though we should recognize them, and develop new powers and history as the plot demands - a near-extinct race of wild animals one minute, a highly-advanced civilization the next. Only the regulars come out of this looking good.

15. Acceptable Casualties (15 pages)
A very, very bleak and absolutely wonderful story. The 'survival' theme is handed very well, with Mark being depicted as intelligent, witty, yet also cowardly and weak - in short, a genuine human being that stands out all the more against the perfect denizens of ST: TNG he seems to live with. The slow lapse from the fragmented prose of the start to the conventional type at the end is slightly clumsy, but the impressive portrayal of the Sontarans as unstoppable, arrogant killing machines more than makes up for it. Is Mark a traitor for what he does? Or is he doing what anyone would do? Or is he just, basically, a kid out of his depth? The story offers questions to think about which would never have occurred to me if I hadn't read this. Despite some minor reservations, I still think this is top quality fiction.

16. The Choice (19 pages)
A straightforward 1980s action movie romp with the newly-regenerated Master tackling a bunch of nuclear terrorists in the woods, dodging bullets and hiding up trees. The usual regeneration cliches like getting used to the new face, personality and clothes are made interesting by the acknowledgement that the Master hasn't really changed since 1971 and is probably getting a bit state. The ending manages to be both harsh and touching.

17. Survival of the Daleks - There's Something Just Behind You (18 pages)
That lone red Dalek makes its bid for freedom in one long chase scene that becomes ever more terrifying as it hunts down Robbie, effortlessly overcoming any and all obstacles until it seems to be some kind of demon straight from hell. The graphic depictions of human beings mutating into Kaled squids is enough to get under your skin. After a derivative start, this story reaches new and chilling depths as the threat of the Dalek drives the "sympathetic" characters to ever-more extreme action. The cliffhanger will have you racing towards the next episode to see what happens next, and that is a promise my friends!

18. Immoral Victories (14 pages)
As ever, a great hear-able Doctor voice, and a genuinely bizarre set-up with what feels like an army of neurotic C3P0s up against a squadron of suicidally-overconfident General Melchetts. Walking the fine line between plot and a string of jokes, the Coburn Doctor is comparatively closed-minded and sits oddly as the only voice of reason. Nevertheless, the Doctor bluffing people he's a computer virus and the "we call it a distraction" bits are thoughtful and wonderful.

19. Neglecting Ninevah (25 pages)
A multi-era tale of each Doctor realizing his life is over, ending with the Thirteenth Doctor vowing to get into heaven half an hour before the Daleks know he's dead... so to speak. It takes off from what is, for me, probably the most difficult clash between the new series and the DWADs (the too-many Doctors, not enough Time War problem) and ends up with the Grim Reaper assuming a form in a tweed jacket, bowtie and fex. A bit maudlin - but given the subject matter it can hardly be denied - and there some nice cameos from a variety of canonical characters. The denoument is dark and harsh. It's one of those stories that demands a few minutes' break after reading to let your head resettle after its unnerving effect.

20. Fancy Meeting You Here! (1 page)
Funny and sweet. I cried.

21. Simple Logic (15 pages)
A cracking story with a very sympathetic and plausible take on a character so cliched and far-fetched they're silly. The story ends with a punch in the guts, with a couple of the best lines in the collection ("The last monument to sentient life in the entire universe. The only proof that any order emerged from chaos in this entire realm." "Pity about the decor."): dark, gory, plausible and harsh. Loved it.

22. You Have Got To Be Kidding (12 pages)
Another Segal comedy story, another TARDIS crew we don't really know, another American historical, another bleak and cynical ending. There's not much to say except it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

23. A Change of Direction (pages)
I generally don't like fantasy feel but this had a nasty little twist which justified a dues ex machina in the shape of a unicorn. I was also chuffed by the wonderfully intense, complex Doctor/Christine dynamics which underpin this story of a friendship at breaking point. We get a very interesting insight into the events of The Chronic Rift along the way.

24. Broken Threads (9 pages)
Quite simply one of the best stories ever written. It relies heavily on the tough psychological impact of surviving the end of the world, a sort of The Day After of the Daleks by showing us a world where death is the only thing to look forward to. The main character Colonel Crichton gets some much-needed depth and coherence, such as the sequence where he listens to an answering machine tape with his dead sister's voice, then removes the batteries to use for more important things. A great cameo by the Daleks, too.

25. The Decision is Final (14 pages)
Wickedly funny take on the early Segal years as recorded in Kevin Vasavious' randomly-updated diary. I did feel the "I can't wait to get out of here" gag was done to death, but then it's probably a point about Kevin's lack of self-awareness. The recklessness and genuine danger to life aboard the TARDIS underpins a bouncily humorous piece. Great stuff.

26. Survival of the Daleks - The Day Before Eternity (34 pages)
A sharp, moving conclusion with no clear moral victory (something that I, for one, cheer loudly). The well-drawn characterization allows some genuine surprises, like the conditions of the Dalek's offer of surrender to the Doctor. It's easy to like the OC character of Gelver and share the Time Lord's mild disappointment that he is unable to join them aboard the TARDIS. The final sequence is breathtaking, demonstrating the terrifying cruelty of the Daleks even to their own kind and also their worrying ability to see the big picture. Some beautiful lines, but the longest installment in the book...

27. Counting Down (3 pages)
A flash of insight into the workings of the Watcher, which I'd never thought about before. This is a nice twist on one of my favourite scenes from Logopolis, and has a lovely, wistful tone.

CJ's Review: On The Edge

2011-05-12T05:26:00.000-07:00

A Review of Short Trips: On The Edge
by Caitlyn J.

A random link on a Doctor Who webguide lead me to discover the Doctor Who Audio Dramas (or DWADs), an American team of amateur fan audios that have been churning out stories since 1982. Curiously, despite their impressive longevity they are generally overlooked - especially in this age where BBC Wales and Big Finish dominate the franchise for good or for ill.

Having gone through six Doctor and innumerable companions during their near-two-hundred adventures, the DWADs have a fictional universe close enough to the classic series to be understood by the outsider, but distinctive enough to merit its own exploration. Yet despite having numerous listeners and self-confessed fans, there is little creative fiction told about these particular incarnations, until recently.

Having just read through all the stories carefully so as to review them, I can say that there is much for both the unitiated and the long-time devotee to appreciate. There's a fun tongue-in-cheek character list with thumbnail sketches of the different Doctors and companions, and a program guide in the back, allowing the readers to view the stories in context should they so desire.

Short Trips: On The Edge is a more than acceptable collection of a standard quite comparable to the BBC anthologies it evokes. With the overarching theme of how DWAD characters can cope when their lives are on the line, On The Edge has a good mix of adventures set in various periods in different Doctor's reigns. There are a wide range of styles, from the plainly told Simple Logic through to the first person narrative of The Decision is Final to the metatextual articles of The Wooden Planet. There are stories of the Doctor's companions before and after they meet him, of the Time Lord afterlife, of a lone Dalek rampage, of historicals, of comedies, of cyberpunk, of horror, from Wild West America to the end of all life in the universe.

All are well told, and some are told beautifully.

'The Step Beyond'

The opening story of the collection unintentionally evokes the more existential episodes of the Welsh revival. As in Amy's Choice, the Doctor finds himself switching between two different realities: enjoying a quiet afternoon with his ex-companions, and then facing certain death in the TARDIS. There is no Dream Lord figure here, and the question of which reality is the right one is left refreshingly open - is one just a hallucination, a parallel universe or maybe the afterlife itself? To say any more would spoil the plot twists. A mystical, cryptic opener.

'Fool's Errand'

The favorite line up of the Flynn Doctor, Moira and Charlie are dropped into a melting pot of derelict space ships, lethal space plagues, ruthless space pirates and merciless space monsters. Arguably any one of these elements could have supported a story on its own, but this collage works well. It is a tale of shadows and slaughter, convincingly portraying a situation that the Doctor cannot resolve while giving some good material to the companions. The downbeat ending, to my mind at least, screams for a sequel to explore what happened next...

'Go Soak Your Head'

Giving us a little relief from all the tense, fraught atmosphere of angst is this lighter tale of merriment. It's a Friday Night and the Dave Segal Doctor has pressganged his grumbling companions into exploring a derelict space platform - and where the previous story had gloom and despair, this has slapstick and farce as the Doctor unwittingly gets his friends into increasingly awkward straights with no intention of getting them out again... that's what K9's for, after all! This cheerful comedy allows us to deal with the frustrations and insecurities of this particular TARDIS crew without getting all depressing and bitter, leading to the quite mad idea of Landon and Dillion taking a vacation from their bodies so they can go to the pub and become friends over quite a few pints. The hilarious ending outside the TARDIS is the icing on a very enjoyable cake, the perfect evocation of the fun Williams-era-style adventuring of Segal's penultimate season.

'Too Little, Too Late'

Tackling the fate of certain death with the casual wit we expect, this is a hundred-word snapshot of the Coburn Doctor and his companions dealing with an out-of-control TARDIS in their various, often-ineffective ways. Short, nonsensical, but worth it for the punchline.

'The Dalton Gang's Last Stand'

Set right at the beginning of the audios, this pure historical drops the Savage Doctor and Melissa (hard not to imagine being played by Christopher Eccleston and Mary Tamm respectively) into the Wild West during a sickeningly violent bank robbery gone wrong. Poor Melissa is horrified by the carnage but the Doctor is able to see, if not the funny side, than the big picture, and their argument about whether or not the bank robbers deserve as much sympathy as their victims ends the story on a blistering yet thoughtful note.

'Recompense'

Although a story for the deNatale Doctor and Christine, they only appear very briefly in this story about a self-destructive and corrupt Liverpool police man who makes for a compelling but unlikeable character. The morality of the characters is rather odd, too - with the Doctor being only able to save one person from a burning building treated as equal to accidentally killing a dozen police officers. While forgiveness and second chances are clearly what the story is about, it's hard not to think the central character has escaped justice in more ways than one - a theme already handled far better by the previous story.

'Green Means "Go"'

The first of several stories examining the lives of companions after they've left the TARDIS, this one concerns Dara Hamilton, who did not leave the Doctor's side by choice and is desperate to return - by whatever means necessary. Sticking true to her character's stubborn recklessness, she ends up trying to find the Time Lord by investigating any paranormal activity and ends up spending the night in a haunted hotel; not the most sensible of actions at the best of times, let alone when you're heavily pregnant! Like all the best ghost stories, it is genuinely unsetting and creepy, with just the right amount of false scares and genuine horror to make you want to sleep with the light on. As long as the light isn't green, anyway...

'The Wooden Planet'

This story is not told in the usual way, but rather being a fake DWM article about a tale where the Flynn Doctor and Christine arrive on an artificial wooden planet run by luddite monks. When a Krynoid arrives, things can only get worse... All in all, I think I would have liked to read, or even hear this story for myself instead of second hand. The background trivia, highlighting every possible continuity reference, goof, and unused draft ideas, got wearying very quickly and the less-than-satisfied review means it ends on a flat note. True, reviewing "the Best DWAD Story EVER!!!" would be just ridiculous, but it would have been nice if the article had been about a story people liked instead of merely tolerated.

'The Next Journey'

Seasons 17 and 18 collide in this story, with two almost irreconcilable eras of Doctor Who combining in one simple idea: the Nimon invade E-Space! Another post-Doctor story, it focusses on the largely overlooked companion Susie-Jo, exploring her loneliness trapped in a universe not her own, cut off from any and all friends and family, and the lengths she'll go to ensure her sacrifice isn't for nothing. To say anything much about it will spoil the story but everyone is very much in character, particularly the Nimon who shows off the deadpan wit characteristic of their only TV story, sarcastically describing himself as "both impressed and daunted" when he sees K9. If you have never thought much about Horns of Nimon, you will think far more kindly of it after reading this story... It's very good.

'Mortal Reminders'

The Savage Doctor and Melissa are back in this bleak story set in the wild beauty of the Eye of Orion, where the Time Lords are forced to quarantine themselves after contracting a deadly plague. The Doctor treats it like a camping trip but his companion isn't quite as confident, and you can't help but share their helplessness and frustration as their conditions worsen and death beckons. It also features a guest appearance by someone totally unexpected, and I loved the way they refused to commit to how this fitted into continuity and even suggested it was all a dream. This Doctor/Companion team are definitely shaping up as the most enjoyable and interesting ones on offer.

'You Make A Stand'

A dark little drabble suggesting the ultimate fate of what happened to Landon during the Segal Doctor's last story. It demonstrates the effect the Doctor's had on the fussy Time Lord, and perhaps not for the best. It sums up the themes of the anthology in as few a words as possible.

'Out of Options'

Just as the previous story showed us what happened to Landon, this brutal tale shows us some more of Dillion - now having teamed up with the deNatale Doctor to fight off a Cyberman invasion, only for it all to go wrong. It's odd, with a never-before-used Doctor/Companion combination that feels like it's always been there, and the scenes of them being chased, bleeding and battered, through jungles by Cyber refugees are tense and fearful. Dillion pretty much takes center stage, though the Doctor (beautifully compared to an injured wolf) doesn't fade into the background. The only flaw I would have to say is the Cybermen barely merit a cameo and could have been any old enemy. Certainly, they're not as interesting as the other monsters in the story, of whom I could happily read more about.

'Acceptable Casualties'

Another Doctor-free story, this time focussing on Mark Triyad's early years, long before he became the dependable officer, gentleman and Starfleet poster boy. Instead, he was a selfish and cowardly brat (shades of Turlough!) who, admittedly, was too young and inexperienced to be much else when sent to the front line. The prose is wonderful, following Mark's initial exhausted apathy and turning to crystal clear adrenaline-fueled clarity as the Federation/Zylon War crosses into Sontaran/Rutan strife. The mental image of dome-headed warriors shouting "Sontar-Ha!" as they storm the Enterprise, killing everyone they meet, is one that lingers in the memory, but Acceptable Casualties also remembers that the Sontarans are one of the few monsters you can have an intelligent conversation with as well. Field Marshall Starg's blend of philosophy and contempt is a highlight, while the Rutan spy has a good line in racist abuse: "Degenerate space trolls!"

Quite possibly the highlight of the collection.

'The Choice'

This story focusses entirely on the Master, showing what he gets up to when he and the Doctor aren't crossing swords. It's a nice blend of action film and character piece, very much putting the "Old Habits" into "Die Hard". The Master has just regenerated and is taking stock of his life/lives, and there's lots of dark humor as he tries to shake off his traditional bearded, black-clad psychopath image, but circumstances continually force him back into killing people in cold blood. It's fascinating to see the Master tackling scenarios the Doctor would be more comfortable with (helping innocent bystanders, defusing a bomb, reasoning with homicidal maniacs) in his own inimitable style. Rather like the old Daleks comic strip, it's interesting to have a villain as the main character, if only because it makes the ending harder to anticipate...

'Immoral Victories'

The Doctor is once again centre-stage, a solo Coburn voyage as he encounters the final battle between a robot army and a human resistance force. Despite the bleak subject matter, this is a lighthearted tale of hypochrondriac androids and ridiculously overconfident military commanders, with the Doctor spending half the story either bamboozling or being bewildered by the other characters - and the final twist is perfect; inevitable in retrospect but out-of-the-blue at the time.

'Neglecting Ninevah'

How could you not be enticed by a story which begins, "Let the heavens cast their spray of light across the sky! T'will not touch the dark of Ninevah where Gallifreyans go to die"? ...because I can't! Very broadly this story examines the pivotal question, of what the Doctor will do when he ultimately reaches his final incarnation? There is a mystical quality to the story which features not just the Flynn Doctor, but every one from the DWADs, the TV series past and present, stageplays, audios, fan videos and more!

The story is a journey of discovery to a place where nothing is quite what it appears, and stirs up the continuity hornet's nest of how these fan audios can exist with the post-Time War TV series. So much fan fiction are about what might have happened to the Doctor, but Neglecting Ninevah flips that on its head and challenges whether or not anything has truly happened to the Doctor, and if a Time Lord can regenerate more than thirteen times then it just goes to show that The Deadly Assassin simply isn't the story you remember any more...

To try and be brief about this is just about impossible as there is so much to mention that I feel like mentioning something on every page, but - trying to restrain myself - just one lovely example is the Doctor's reflection on his imminent demise: "In a way, it was a defeat – but defeat could be liberating. Knowing that he was beaten, giving in, meant that the weight of responsibility was being lifted from his shoulders. The Doctor didn’t have to fight and struggle to win any more, which was a novel experience if nothing else." Is this the end or isn't it? Read on, but the author will not make it easy for you. To say anything more about it would be to spoil its impact. It is written with great skill and power and is very cleverly done.

'Fancy Meeting You Here!'

A lovely drabble revealing how the Segal Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith met up again, neatly dovetailing into the unresolved cliffhanger of the SJS spinoff audios. Doubly poignant given the recent and untimely death of Elizabeth Sladen.

'Simple Logic'

Another "before they were famous" origin story, this for the trouble-making time traveler Loki. Easily dismissed as a low-rate Master-substitute (even elsewhere in this collection), it defines Loki as a dangerous mixture of overconfidence and arrogance with a very un-Master-like tendency to blind panic. It wouldn't be difficult to imagine the Doctor being like this when he first left Gallifrey, convinced he knew it all and unable to cope when proved wrong. The story itself is a horrifically literal take on the concept of "zombie apocalypse", as Loki and his bodyguard Helfric travel to the end of time and encounter the living dead. Simultaneously a runaround-chase through a swamp and a philosophical discussion about the futility of existence, the title is applied to all sorts of deductions and justifications. It's enough to make you track down what few Loki stories are available to listen to them with a fresh ear...

'You Have Got To Be Kidding...'

The unusual title sets the tone for this off-kilter black comedy about piracy on the seven seas - but don't expect any Johnny Depp hijinks here. This is a pure historical in content. The Segal TARDIS team bump into Captain William Kidd (or "Billy the Kid" as Tom continually refers to him) and, in recompense for him saving their lives, try to return the favor - but Captain Kidd isn't the easiest of people to rescue, and when the various schemes of the time travellers start to cancel each other out hilarity, as they say, ensues. Like the other Segal Doctor stories, it's a comedy but this time a very cynical one.

'A Change of Direction'

After miraculously escaping death, the deNatale Doctor and Christine's relationship reaches breaking point in a blazing row that's been building up ever since the last regeneration. Just why is the deNatale Doctor so reckless and arrogant? Why does he refuse to admit his mistakes, let alone learn from them? The questions are answered and might change the way you see that particular incarnation ever again, and explanation - refreshingly - does not instantly make Christine forgive the Doctor for his recent actions. This story has some wonderful dialogue, and set as it is just before the deNatale's Doctor untimely death, manages to brutally critique the character yet at the same time reaffirm he was cut down in his prime.

'Broken Threads'

A terrifying story set in a world where the living envy the dead. Following a Night of the Comet style apocalypse, a surviving UNIT team hide in a bunker, waiting desperately for the Doctor to return to help, but he never does. With hideously depressing imagery of mankind blasted back to the stone age, it also shows the slow decent into insanity by the UNIT leader, who is no Lethbridge-Stewart, and indeed only becomes vaguely Brigadier-ish when he's decided to kill himself! It says a lot that this story considers the Daleks invading Earth and exterminating everything on sight a happy ending...

'The Decision is Final'

"We’re back in London, 1978 and what happens? Alien space weeds germinate and start to cause chaos. As per bleeding usual." A welcome respite from gloom and bitterness, this is a hilarious and bitchy secret diary of one Dr. Kevin Vasavious, one of the Doctor's longer-serving companions. While other assistants, enemies and even Doctors come and go, Kevin loiters in the TARDIS, whining about how boring and predictable he finds life as a time traveler - unaware that he is clearly an unpopular bore himself. Nevertheless, it isn't all comedy moans about quarries and Daleks, with several moments taken out to note just how many of the Doctor's companions have met a sticky end without our favorite Time Lord seeming to even bat an eyelid or fear a shadow of guilt. As with the best satire, it's as easy to laugh at while being very hard to disagree with.

'Survival of the Daleks'
1: Escape Or Die
2: Servants of Masters
3: There's Something Just Behind You
4: The Day Before Eternity

"THE DOCTOR IS PREPARED TO EXTERMINATE ME FOR HIS BELIEFS. I AM WILLING TO EXTERMINATE FOR MINE. HOW ARE WE DIFFERENT?"

Interspersed throughout the collection is this feature-length four part story, featuring the R Douglas Barbieri Doctor and his companion Robbie Peterson. The newest and least-well-known incarnation (with only one-and-a-half episodes under his belt) is wisely contained to a single tale, and putting the latest model up against his oldest and most deadly of enemies is an irresistable proposition. Nevertheless, part of me wonders if Survival of the Daleks should have been a stand-alone eBook (much like Children Shouldn't Play With Cybermen, a Coburn adventure that outgrew the collection - which is why the Cybermen are so poorly represented by Out of Options). Certainly, this epic tale provides much of the hefty page count.

Just as earlier Dalek stories seemed to be a rewrite of the original Terry Nation script, it looks like all contemporary ones seem inspired by the infamous Eccleston story, with a single and badly-damaged Dalek being set loose on a killing spree. As the narrative notes, after The Augury of Death and Iron Legion, the Doctor seems to be in the habit of mopping up Dalek stragglers rather than confronting their empire directly - something that the terrifying epilogue reveals not to be a coincidence. The Dalek in this story is not merely a gliding death machine, but shown to be something more akin to a disease - both metaphorically and literally. Anyone who spends time with it is corrupted and infected, allowing the Dalek to cause far more chaos than it would with a simple laser beam.

As with Moira, Robbie's heartfelt idealistic beliefs combined with her understandable niavete lead to the companion and Doctor locking horns - he sees the Dalek as the epitome of evil, she sees just another alien, tortured and in need of help, and cannot condone murder even when the exterminations begin. The new Doctor's age and infirmity are put to good use, with the old man's action hero antics being all the more brave and impressive knowing how weak and fragile he is, while at the same time his crochety demands for unquestioning obedience cause more harm than good. Hopefully, unlike his predecessor but one, this Doctor will learn from his mistakes instead of repeating them over and over again.

Survival of the Daleks is full of lovely nods to the past and present, and while perhaps not the best in this anthology certainly merits its pride of place as the epic-length saga, the episodic format allowing some goodnatured digs at Howard da Silva and Murray Gold...

'Counting Down'

And, finally, a brief vignette told from the point of view of the Watcher as the Segal Doctor's death approaches. Despite what you might expect, it's a joyful and exhuberant piece, reminding us that the death of one Doctor is the birth of another, something to be looked forward to. A veritable love letter to the Coburn era, if it doesn't leave a happy-if-wistful smile on your face than you didn't read it properly!

Which brings me to the end of the reviews. This is a collection I would not have been disappointed with had I bought it, in fact it would have been money well spent! But I did not have to spend any money, or impatiently wait for a parcel to arrive, and if this first experiment is anything to go by then the rumored follow ups (Short Trips: A Bygone Era and Short Trips: Crossed Wires) must be worth waiting for.

Oooh! New stuff!

2011-03-29T05:02:00.000-07:00

A DWAD Year

2010-12-30T14:59:00.001-08:00

Set between The Call of Pudsey and Long Winter's Night

The Doctor finds himself summoned back to Earth by his old friends Colonel Crichton and Mark Triyad, who have discovered an epic conspiracy at the very heart of UNIT itself. Over the decades it has violated the Doctor's trust and are intending to use all their powers to create soldiers with the powers of Time Lords on a genetic level - and their first test candidates are Moira and Charlie! Time is literally running out as, while the Doctor faces oppositions from all sides, the very walls dividing reality begin to break down...

Set between Fictional Hypothesis and The Empire of the Daleks

Denton's World is a great place for a holiday - a planetary theme park based on 1930s Chicago, a mess of speakeasies, night clubs, police stations, cheap hotels... not that Mark Triyad can see the fun side of enforced primitivism and squallor. Alas, he and the Doctor are stuck here until the TARDIS repairs itself from jumping dimensions and to make ends meet, they must find places for themselves in this society. But Mickey Triyad PI's first case from a bereaved widow is more serious than he was expecting to deal with - is there a real scam going on in this overblown fairground? And can it be a coincidence all the clues lead to the Bar Paradiso, where the Doctor has just landed a profitable magic routine as John Smithio the Magnificent? Like the saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt...

Set between Space Siege and The Death Machines

The TARDIS has landed in the worst place in the universe, Delta Maxima. The ultimate penal planet from which there can be no escape, the endless deserts are patrolled by animated skeletons who continually torture and abuse the poor unfortunates sent there. It is Hell, plain and simple - and to Sarah's disgust the Doctor refuses to become involved in the plight of the prisoners. The Time Lord knows something he's not letting on, and orders Sarah to remain in the TARDIS rather than emerging to help the inhabitants of Delta Maxima. But Sarah, never one for following orders, heads out into this nightmare realm. And soon, she realizes the Doctor had a very good reason for not wanting to stay...

Set between Memorium and Time's Champions, and during The Webs of Time

The Doctor and Christine pay a surprise visit to the planet Canis - only to discover the war with the Cybermen is far from over. Disease and plagues ravage the population, and the only chance for survival is to replace the infected organs with artificial spare parts. Working with his old companion Terrance Dillion, the Doctor works to try and cure the bioweapon the Cybermen are using. As the Cyber Fleets prepare to strike the world, the Doctor and Dillion head off to confront the enemy... leaving Christine alone to face the bridgehead of the Cyberman invasion!

Set between Long Winter's Night and Alive

Earth at the height of its civilization - in the past, present or future, does it matter? The world is united, prosperous, content. Or so the media would have you believe. At the Presidential Palace, the Doctor and Charlie have made fast friends - and enemies - mere minutes after the TARDIS lands in the verdant gardens on the island. A plot is under way to assasinate the Potentate of Earth, and the time travellers make a ready-made pair of scapegoats. Preventing a murder is hard enough, but the Doctor soon discovers that this utopia has a terrible cost and now the price will have to be paid. One way or another.

Set between The Angry Red Planet and The Galaxy Being

Paris, 1945. The Liberation of France is at hand as the Allies turn against the Nazi invasion forces. It is a momentous turning point in history, and how better to experience it than with a glass of wine in the Cafes des Poetes? The Doctor may be enjoying this trip back in time, but Victoria is more worried about Kathy and the TARDIS left on a patch of moorland fifty years in the future on the other side of the Channel! Just what has dragged them back in time? What are the hideous beasts seen crawling through the ossuary beneath the streets of Paris? When the Doctor discovers who the new scientific advisor to the Nazi Party is, he realizes that an old enemy has brough a terrible conflict to Earth - the battle between the Rani and the Tetraps for time technology will consume humanity in the crossfire...

Set between The Burning Court and Alive

Charlie never thought of the Doctor as someone who made mistakes, let alone the terrible ones that took place on Thoros Beta in the 24th century. Now the caprice of chance has returned him to that star system, giving him the chance to find out exactly what happened on the black day that he abandoned his companion Peri to a fate worse than death. But even if the Doctor is prepared for the truth, greater events are taking place. With the death of King Yrcanos, the Krontep Empire is facing collapse. Race riots are tearing planets apart, doomsday cults believe the end times are coming, and the ghosts of long-dead enemies slither in the shadows. Together with the embittered Queen Perpugilliam of the Brown, the Doctor and Charlie discover that the Mentors of Thoros Beta aren't as extinct as everyone hoped - and with Crozier's mind-altering technology, have a weapon unrivalled in history...

Set between Target: Zylon and The Time Brokers

On a quest to meet William Hope Hodgson, disaster strikes the time travelers. The TARDIS is lost somewhere on a sea of obsidian waters and dark mists. The Doctor, Mark and Dara are adrift on a homemade raft. Their lights cannot penetrate more than a few feet in any direction. In the distance bells are tolling. And beneath them something very nasty has come hunting. As tempers begin to fray, the TARDIS crew begin to suspect one of them is not who they say they are...

Set between Carnival of Doom and Doomsday Warrior

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Melissa to a remote Scottish fishing village that isn't on any maps, but it seems a nice and friendly enough place - apart from the unnerving silence, anyway. The villagers are polite and friendly - though there doesn't seem to be a man or boy in the town, as they have all seemingly disappeared. But the women who remain aren't particularly fussed about it. And the sight of mermaids and driads in the fog, well, that's just a trick of the light surely? No, the Time Lords could easily overlook such oddities... until all the bodies start to wash up on the shores. Something infinitely old has come to this village, and is now entering the next phase of its monstrous life cycle.

Set between The Soul Stealers and The Chimera's Game

Working after hours for a publishing house can be a terrifying experience for lonely souls. If you're easily spooked, the darkness can be suffocating (but it's just parts of the building shut down to save power), the locked doors can be claustophobic (just other parts locked down for security), and a cold, often transient skeleton crew toiling away in a byzantine maze of cubicles can be quite unfriendly (hey, you don't have to be mad here, but it helps!). Mind you, Could you hear a scream over your headphones? Could you investigate with the impersonal supervisors roaming the corridors? Could you even believe missing coworkers weren't just quitting and moving on? The Doctor and Christine have more important things to worry about: this rigid unchanging corporate setting is weakening the fabric of time...

Set between The Planet of the Dead and The Last Colony

The Doctor is investigating the Morien, a race that can foresee the future but cannot remember even yesterday. Dillion and Susie-Jo aren't so interested, but Landon can easily tell the Morien is being manipulated by shadowy forces - so why can't the Doctor? As he continues his investigation, the Doctor is unaware that his own timestream is being controlled. In desperation, Landon, Dillion and Susie-Jo must work alone this time. Luckily, K9 has a plan using the Morien's cloning techniques to create Doctors free from outside control; Doctors from the past... or from the future...

Set between The Crimson Scarab and The Seventh Dungeon of Drakmoore

The Doctor recieves a summon that he cannot refuse, drawing him to an asteroid at the beginning of time where his oldest enemy had made his home. But now, the Estate of the Master stands abandoned, the evil Time Lord finally dead. But from beyond the grave, the Master has gathered his old allies on this neutral territory for his last will and testament - a legacy of doomsday weapons and masterplans any one person could use to conquer the universe. But the Doctor is not the only guest: the King of the Zylons has been invited, as has Admiral Jarga of the Ice Warriors, the Cyber-Emperor, General Starrk of the Sontaran Empire, Ryshelk of the Eocene Confederacy and the Dalek Eternal. Are they all going to get a cut of the Master's treasures? If not, why invite them all? What secret is the Master's former and taciturn Yeti butler hiding? And, perhaps most important of all, is the Master really dead?

Sparacus Season 2

2008-07-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

One dark and stormy night in the 1920s, the sexual olympics in Blandische Hall are interrupted by a seemingly pointless and unstoppable killing spree - but while there are many suspects, the Hall is rapidly running out of victims. With only his disturbing S&M fetish and the dim-witted chav Rose Tyler to assist him, can the Doctor control his baser appetites long enough to solve the mystery? And does anyone really care?

It's Christimas Eve, 2005, and the rural village of Little Balcome is suffering a rash of violent, unexplained murders - surely the sudden interest from a Radon Housing Development Cartel can't just be a coincidence? When the TARDIS materializes on the outskirts of the village, Rose is considering taking her leave of the newly-regenerated Doctor, and finds herself falling into the company of an amateur archaeologist called Ben Chatham...

Earth has been plunged into a global war. Every nation, every country, ever class has turned on all the others and it is only a matter of time before the death toll consumes the Human Race. With chaos and bloodshed across the globe, no one has spotted the source of the carnage at the ancient circle of stones at Stonehenge - apart from the Doctor, Rose and Ben, and the Doctor's former companion Sarah Jane Smith. But can even the TARDIS crew resist the force threatening to divide them long enough to save humanity?

6455, and the rise of intergalactic travel has lead to piracy, accidents and unsolved mysteries. Things can't seem to get much worse when the TARDIS leaves the Doctor, Rose and Ben on a derelict freighter and exposed to a lethal virus that has wiped out the crew, but soon a squad of cutthroat space pirates storm the ship. But the uncontrollable Bannam and his men aren't the only danger aboard the ship, a danger which will leave no survivors...

The Melstock Festival of Love & Peace, a rock concert that rivalled Woodstock itself during 1969 is the obvious place for some weary time travellers eager for some rest and free love 60s spirit. With rock legend Matt Vacant at the height of his powers (and still owning his own teeth) performing music that is quite literally out of this world, the festival promises to be truly mindblowing. Apart, of course, from the negative-vibe merchanists on a recruitment drive for armed forces equally non-terrestrial...

The Cornish coastal town of Farnwell should simply be a quiet place in the middle of nowhere, but when the Doctor, Rose and Ben arrive to visit an iron age archaeological dig, they discover things far more hectic than they expect. There are monsters in the sea slaughtering everything that comes close, the security forces of the new nuclear power plant are taking the laws into their own hands, and the mysterious Dr. Andrews seems to anticipate the Doctor's every move. With his oldest friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart refusing to help, the TARDIS crew must turn to an old enemy for assistance. But has Adam Mitchell truly reformed?

Is Rose Tyler going mad? Gripped by violent hallucinations and visions of those she loved corrupted and dying, Rose seeks a desperate retreat to the Powell Estate - and the brutal truth that maybe she'd have been better off staying away. With Mickey and Ben locking horns and Jackie refusing to believe the Doctor is the same man with a new face, it is down to Adam to try and find out what is wrong with Rose... and just what is going on at a small island just of the coast of Papua New Guinea...

Ben Chatham intends to solve a historical mystery, but one TARDIS journey to London 1483 proves far more dangerous than the archaeologist was expecting. An attempt to discover the truth about the death of the princes in the tower puts the TARDIS crew in the sights of the ruthless Duke of Buckingham and his conspiracy to dethrone Richard III. With Rose captured by Buckingham's cohorts, and aged fortune tellers seeing imminent disaster, the Doctor finds he cannot trust Ben to leave the course of history intact...

The Andromedan world of Zetar III is under siege by the advanced, parasitic Vestians who treat the natives as sport and the beautiful planet as raw material for their civilization. Harvester Machines hunt down the primitive Crell tribespeople while life itself is drained from the world. The situation is a powderkeg, and the arrival of Captain Jack Harkness can only prove to be the final spark...

Upon returning to Earth, Rose is horrified to discover her mother has been rushed to Albion Hospital with a suspected brain tumor. The Doctor, Ben, Adam and Jack are soon sidetracked by strange occurances elsewhere in the hospital, as a sudden rise in mental patients seems connected to a worldwide conspiracy lead by Professor Bernard Starr. All too soon, Rose finds herself left alone to defend her mother against the nightmarish monsters known as the Cragora, survivors of the Last Great Time War...

Time travel experiments conducted in a plush house in Belgravia lead the Doctor to a shocking realization: he is not the Last of the Time Lords. His old enemy, the Master, has survived the conflict, but at a terrible cost and is now willing to put the whole of creation at stake to save his own life. When the Master allows a bitter old Jewish man, Bernad Levinson, to return to Austria in 1889, the TARDIS crew find themselves forced to follow - and save the life of Alois and Klara Hitler's baby son Adolf...

While Ben has dinner at the Tyler Household, the remaining TARDIS crew head for Rossyle Morach in the north-west of Scotland. Captain Jack fancies some hill-walking, Adam wants to team up with his fellow environmentalists to protest about the installation of the GM-crop Nantento Plant, while the Doctor is more concerned about the mysterious almost supernatural visitations of "armored knights". It quickly transpires that the "knights" are actually a phalanx of Cybermen, and are aided by an old enemy even the Doctor never expected to see again. In this final conflict, not everyone is going to get out alive...

The TARDIS crew is splitting up. Captain Jack and Adam have taken over the new organization Torchwood, and Rose wishes to stay at the Powell Estate following the devastating loss of her mother. Will Ben stand by his lover, or continue to travel with the Doctor? But when Mickey Smith falls prey to a cargo cult and a mysterious plague of deaths strikes England it becomes clear the time travellers cannot trust anything - even their own minds...

Sparacus Season 3

2008-07-10T03:14:00.000-07:00

Abandoned and rejected by the TARDIS crew, Ben Chatham is left to return to Cambridge 2006 and attempt to put his life back together. But soon a phone call from his first love draws Ben to Wiltshire, where a newly-formed intelligence service are investigating paranormal activity. Without friends or protection, Ben finds himself unsure of who or what he can trust - is a bereaved girlfriend actually a murderer? Can the mythical Herne the Hunter be orchestrating a campaign of terror against the human race? And is Operation: Delta struggling to end this madness, or are they truly the cause of it all in the first place?

An alien artefact found at a construction site in Dorset leads Genna Miles to contact Ben Chatham in an attempt to solve the mystery of its origin - and into a web of brutal murder and deceit. Alien forces are at work in England, affecting everything from council admin workers to feral cats, but the real danger is at the heart of government itself: Harriet Jones, Prime Minister of Great Britain has been replaced by the ancient Zeton psychopath Kracos. With the fate of the world in his hands, Ben finds himself forced to confront the truth about himself, no matter what the consequences...

Bitter and spiteful at his boyfriend's refusal to let Ben control his life, the amateur archaeologist buries himself in his work. Heading for Tellbury to excavate a Saxon burial site with the exhuberant Katie Ryan, but their stay in Somerset proves far from routine: the inhabitants behave strangely, small children murder animals, and the local vicar insists sightings of medival crusaders harber Armageddon itself. Ben suspects the nearby Techfield Research Centre has some influence over events, not realizing he is the lynchpin to the apocalyptic plans of Director Colin Blunt. Luckily, the Doctor has left Ben with a parting gift that just might save the day...

Together with his new companion - the psychotically unpleasant Martha Jones - the Doctor returns to Earth where he encounters a face from the past in the form of Ben Chatham. Together they investigate a curious archaelogical find at Little Bromcombe, and discover that outside forces are determined to stop them at any cost. With the legendary Black Monk slaughtering anyone he should come across, and mysterious secret agents trying to assassinate the time travellers, it quickly becomes clear that things are far more serious than even the Doctor suspected: events at this monastery are shattering the walls that bind the universe together...

The quiet coastal village of Stangeness seems the perfect place for Ben to enjoy a quiet holiday with his Great Uncle Henry, but upon arriving in the Scottish town one dark and stormy night the truth turns out to be quite different: inhuman monsters stalk the countryside, strange figures lurk in the shadows and Ben himself is behaving very strangely. Drawing the attention of Stangeness Electronics proves to be a fatal mistake that will cost Ben dearly - and unless he can get in contact with the Doctor and Martha Jones, humanity will be forfeit...

Ben is far from happy to discover that Katie Ryan has vanished from the face of the Earth after he forced her into a theraputic retreat known as the Limes Clinic. Has she left of her own accord? But then why are the staff denying she was ever there? Fearing reprisals from the Ryan family, Ben desperately turns to the Doctor and Martha for assistance, while he himself decides to indulge himself by seducing a manic depressive called Nick. But Ben's increasing megalomania is not the only danger the TARDIS crew find, as the truth behind events at the Limes Clinic will change everything. This is a battle that Ben Chatham cannot win...

In this exclusive compendium of Ben Chatham Spin-Off Adventure Holiday Specials, the notorious ex-TARDIS traveller finds his self-absorption reaching new heights, his self-respect reaching new lows and the death toll of innocent bystanders is rising all the time. In a world constantly under threat by unknowable evils, is Ben Chatham himself the biggest monster of them all?

As 2006 draws to a close, the increasingly disenfranchised Ben Chatham is confronted by a string of catastrophes he is no longer interested in dealing with. Despite the urgent pleas from the Torchwood Institute, UNIT and Operation: Delta, Ben has little time for anything but his dysfunctional personal life and cares nothing for the civilian casualties along the way. Can Katie Ryan save him from his despondency - always assuming it's worth the effort?

In Witchbone, Ben's isolating on Halloween leads him losing his grip on reality.
Firestarter sees an alien visitation determined to make Bonfire Night live up to its name.
The insane genius Sir Alistair Miles unleashes a new type of cyber criminal in Crimebuster.
Dark Yuletide has Ben caught in an intervention on Christmas Eve as his allies once more turn to him for help when mankind's ultimate enemy return to the Earth.
And finally the horrific Extracts from the Diary of Ben Chatham offers a chilling insight into the workings of a mind no longer completely sane...

Sparacus Season 4

2008-07-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

When the TARDIS's systems suffer a catastophic failure, the time machine finds itself unable to travel beyond the confines of 21st Century England. Seeking assistance, the Doctor turns to Donna Noble for help. The pair are soon drawn to Wiltshire where protestors against GM crops are being found dead in the fields of New World Enterprises. One of the surviving protestors, a man called Ben Chatham, is certain this is a conspiracy, but the Doctor and Donna soon discover the killers are not of this Earth - but does NWE Director Stephen Poole know more of their origin than he is willing to admit?

An attempt to repair the TARDIS leaves the Doctor, Donna Noble and Ben Chatham in 1530s Colchester during the infamous dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII. As Thomas Cromwell's men storm St John's Abbey, Donna and Ben are confronted with atrocities history has long forgotten and find themselves press-ganged into the Pilgrimage of Grace. Meanwhile, the Doctor discovers that he is not the only time traveller in town, as Stephen Poole has followed them five hundred years into the past...

The Doctor returns Donna and Ben to the 21st Century, only to arrive in the middle of another New World Enterprises product - a massive road bypass through the ancient Binfield Woods. The project has incurred the wrath of New Age eco-warriors, which in turn earns the anger of NWE Director Stephen Poole. When all the NWE workers abandon the site, it appears the protesters have won... until night falls and the very woods themselves begin to attack. Under siege from all sides, the Doctor and Donna realize their only hope for survival is Ben Chatham...

In hiding from the attentions of New World Enterprises, the Doctor, Donna Noble and Ben Chatham go to ground - but the Doctor is never one to admit defeat. His fellow fugitives soon learn he is in communication with a Norfolk branch of homo reptilia, an ancient race of reptilian beings from the age of the dinosaurs. A cost-cutting dumping exercise from NWE has roused the anger of the Silurians and Sea Devils, who are willing to join forces with the time travellers against Stephen Poole and his company. But has the Doctor unleashed an army beyond his control, and will the newly-awoken Sea Devil Warriors tell the differences between their true enemies and innocent Norfolk fishermen? As things spiral out of control, it might take the Doctor's new enemies to save mankind...

Deliberately retreating into the past, the Doctor and Donna with Ben in tow, arrive during the English Civil War of the 1640s and are soon trapped in a country house with Sir Philip Blanchet, who is hiding Prince Charles of Wales from the anti-royal Roundheads. As the Doctor discovers that their old enemy Stephen Poole has followed them back through time, manipulating history for his own ends, Donna discovers a parliamentarian plot to slaughter the prince, a boy destined to be the future King of England... unless she can save him!

Hunted through time and space, the Doctor is struggling to find any escape from Stephen Poole and his master plans. In desperation, he, Donna Noble and Ben Chatham hide inside the TARDIS outside time and space and beyond Poole's reach... At least, that's the plan. Soon the TARDIS crew are under psychic attack from the warlock Gabriel Decavenar, the self-styled Acorn Man. The Doctor is left to fight a mental battle with the Acorn Man, but while a mind of a Time Lord may be too strong for black magic, his companions have no such protection...

With the TARDIS finally repaired, the Doctor heads to the Andromedan Galaxy. The time machine comes to rest on the planet of Ictar 3, which has ancient connection with Earth and the human race - surely the perfect place to recruit allies against the mysterious Stephen Poole? Alas, it seems Poole has got there first and corrupted the history of the peaceful Elians, and their once-benevolent society is now an Orwellian nightmare of cybernetic dictatorship, surveillance and oppression. The Doctor, Donna and Ben soon find the all-powerful Elian Council are only interested in the people of Earth as raw material for their new empire...

The Doctor returns to Earth in the twenty-first century to part company with his travelling companions, Donna and Ben, allowing him to confront the conglomerate of New World Enterprises alone. While Ben mingles with the gay nightlife of Tenbury, Donna insists on staying with the Time Lord - only to fall foul of NWE's security forces now patrolling the police state England has become. As the Doctor begins a desperate rescue attempt, he discovers that the NWE chemical plant in Suffolk is not only polluting the water table and causing mass loss of life, it has also triggered uncontrollable mutations in native rodents. Tenbury is already under siege from giant rats, and the danger is already spreading across the rest of the country...

The world is ending. Comets blaze across skies filled with flame, the oceans poisoned and the air unbreathable while hideous monsters slaughter everything they come across. All across the Earth, total environmental collapse has begun, orchestrated by New World Enterprises - an economic campaign designed to make the planet uninhabitable. And across the globe, those in power who allowed Stephen Poole's "triumph of the will", take their own lives. It is only a matter of time before all life on Earth dies out, but NWE has an alternative - humanity can buy themselves immortality in this new dark age. If Earth is to survive, somebody has to stop them...

The Doctor finally prepares to strike out against New World Enterprises, a front for a cybernetic revolution orchestrated by a failed Time Lord determined to rewrite all the laws of time. Industrial pollution has driven the world to the point of total environmental collapse, and millions are dying from an atmosphere deliberately poisoned to drive mankind to transform themselves into cyborg creatures that can survive the death of the Earth. In order to conquer the planet before the Doctor can stop them, the Time Meddler and an insane super-computer called BOSS unleash armies of Cybermen to force this evolution upon humanity. With the help of his friends Martha Jones and Donna Noble, the Doctor soon learns that something else entirely has come to the Earth's rescue - but this salvation could end up doing far more damage than the Cybermen. Is this the day human civilization ends?

Sparacus Season 5

2008-07-10T02:54:00.000-07:00

2005-12-19T01:00:00.000-08:00